Two sets of Form 5 and 6 students next year

Latest update: Habibah speaking at the press conference in Putrajaya.

PUTRAJAYA: This year’s Form Five and Six students who are supposed to be sitting for their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) examinations will join the 2021 cohort of Form Five and Six students in schools in January to prepare for their exams in the following months.

Education director-general Datuk Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim said next year’s Form Two and Three students would continue with home-based learning until March 7 to make space for these exam candidates to complete their studies or trial exams in preparation for the major examinations.

“This will allow teachers to plan the usage of classrooms and other facilities (to teach both groups of exam-year students), ” she said during a press conference at the Education Ministry yesterday.

“Year One to Year Six pupils and Form One and Four students in the 2021 cohort will also return on Jan 20.”

Habibah also said not having Form Two and Three students physically present in schools would give school administrators the flexibility to schedule teaching face-to-face for two batches of Form Five students.

She said teachers conducting home-based learning would not be teaching their students all the time or they could combine classes, thus freeing them to help teach the exam candidates next year.

“This would allow the teachers present in the schools to cover teaching the two (Form Five) cohorts, ” she added.

Habibah said the teaching and learning process should continue throughout the rest of this schooling year because although there were no face-to-face lessons for the rest of the 2020 academic year, it was not a holiday for students and teachers.

“The school term still continues, ” she said, adding that a guidebook had been issued for teachers to conduct home-based learning.

Habibah said teachers were to remain at their stations and could use the facilities in their schools for teaching, if necessary, after obtaining permission and schedules from their school heads.

“We hope that the students will be more ready and more motivated to sit for their SPM exam which has been postponed to February next year, ” she added.

SPM and STPM Semester 1 and Semester 3 examinations, which are normally held in November and December, were pushed to the first quarter of 2021.

However last Sunday, Education Minister Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin announced that SPM would be postponed a second time to Feb 22 and STPM to March 8.

The details for these examinations would be announced soon, said Habibah.

She also said the decision to close all schools and conduct home-based learning for the rest of the academic year was made after taking into consideration that nearly 75% of the schools were in areas under the movement conditional order.

Schools in green zones, which account for around 2,700 schools, are in locations with Covid-19 cases, have persons under surveillance or active quarantine cases.