KUCHING: Sarawak is going ahead with its standardised assessment for Year Six pupils to evaluate their level of learning.
State Education, Innovation and Talent Development Minister Datuk Seri Roland Sagah said it would be too late to wait until the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination to find out how much students have learnt.
"For us in Sarawak... we need to have some form of assessment because otherwise, we would not know what level of education our children have.
"We cannot wait until Form Five for the SPM because by then it will be quite late.
"The earlier we can have it, the better," he told reporters after opening an international conference on educational research and innovation here on Wednesday (Nov 27).
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Sagah was commenting on the Education Ministry's decision to abolish exam-oriented learning for school students to reduce their stress.
Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek told Parliament on Tuesday (Nov 26) that the ministry's approach now was focused on inquiry-based learning in tandem with exploration, experience and contextualisation for the holistic development of students.
Sagah said Sarawak's Year Six assessment will be for Mathematics, Science and English under the state's dual language programme (DLP).
He said the assessment would help not only educators but also parents to evaluate the performance of their children.
"This will help them in determining what courses to take for the future and what improvement they have to do," he said.
The Year Six assessment will start next year for the first batch of Sarawak DLP pupils who began learning Science and Mathematics in English in Year One in 2020.
It is being developed by the state Education, Innovation and Talent Development Ministry in collaboration with Cambridge University Press and Assessment, state-owned institutions of higher learning, and the state Education Department.
