No more term exams for pupils

PUTRAJAYA: It’s goodbye to mid-year and final-year exams come next year for Year One, Two and Three pupils.

The abolishment of these exams would ensure teachers focus on character-building, instead of exam preparations, said Education director-general Datuk Dr Amin Senin (pic).

“Pupils will now be assessed based on their individual learning capabilities, and not comparatively,” he told reporters during a briefing on the implementation of assessments for Level One pupils.

Dr Amin said classroom-based assessments had been around since 2011 but unfortunately, schools had only focused on preparing students for exams.

He assured parents that there would still be other methods used to assess a pupil’s progress but the focus would no longer be on academic achievement.

Classroom-based assessments for Level One pupils, he explained, are meant to be pupil-centred and fun.

“The ministry wants to ensure their basic skills and character are properly developed before they continue their learning journey.

“We will use other methods instead; assessments which are formative that can be carried out every day, week or month,” he said.

“Pupils will be continuously assessed throughout their first three years in schools using different instruments such as quizzes, simple projects and role play.

“This will be more meaningful as we do not have to wait until the end of the year to see if a pupil needs intervention.”

He said there would be a student’s learning report to monitor his progress.

The report will contain evaluations on different criteria such as knowledge, skills and moral values.

Dr Amin said that these pupils should be building their 4M skills (reading, writing, counting, reasoning) before they enter Level Two.

“There would be no more streaming for Level One pupils and placing them according to how good they are academically, unless it’s a temporary measure to help them catch up with their peers,” he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching urged the public not to have the wrong idea about the exam abolishment.

“That doesn’t mean teachers cannot give exams, or rather assessments, during class,” she said.

She said the teachers would be in charge of setting the questions, as well as how and when it would be conducted during class.

“A teacher can set the exam questions about the timetables in Mathematics or a vocabulary test for English, or about whatever subject they are teaching that week,” she said, adding assessments were to evaluate how pupils were coping.