PETALING JAYA: A report on the SPM Chinese Language paper highlighting a double blow of fewer candidates and shrinking chances of scoring top grades is drawing concern.
The “SPM Chinese Language Nine-Year Performance Trends (2017–2025)” report by Persatuan Kemajuan Bahasa Cina Malaysia proposes that grade boundaries, marking schemes and detailed performance analyses for all SPM subjects be disclosed to the public as a first step towards rebuilding confidence in the system.
The association's president Lee Kim Chuan said the lack of clarity over how grades are determined had fuelled doubts about fairness, especially as Chinese had for years been the hardest major language subject in which to secure a distinction and was now the only one showing signs of regression.
“It is more important to advance meaningful change. The Malaysian Examinations Syndicate should open up their processes to public scrutiny,” he said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday (May 9).
Based on data from the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate, the report shows that Chinese Language distinctions (A+, A and A–) rose modestly from 17.9% in 2017 to 22.6% in 2020 and 23.4% in 2021. The rate then slipped to 21.5% in 2022, recovered slightly to 22.7% in 2023 and 23.2% in 2024, before plunging to 15.1% last year – the lowest level in the nine-year series.
A total of 11,130 candidates obtained distinctions in 2024, compared with only about 6,950 in 2025. The loss of roughly 4,180 distinction scorers within a single year is described in the report as highly unusual for a major public examination and an anomaly that must be taken seriously.
The study also compares Chinese with other language papers. In 2025, Bahasa Melayu recorded a distinction rate of 32.9%, English 30.9%, Arabic 36.7% and Tamil 34.7%, leaving Chinese at 15.1%, at the bottom of the table.
Bahasa Melayu has generally held between 30% and 36%, Tamil has stayed around 30%–35%, while English has almost doubled its distinction rate from 16.5% in 2017.
The report argues that, unlike the gradual improvement seen in other language subjects, Chinese has remained largely stagnant and is now the only paper showing regression in distinction performance. It concludes that the disparity cannot be attributed solely to students’ ability and may be influenced by grading standards and systemic factors.
Candidate numbers tell a similar story of decline. The subject had 60,521 candidates in 2017, dropping to 48,420 in 2020 and 46,046 in 2025 – a fall of 14,475 over nine years. The report links this to fears that taking Chinese will pull down overall grades and affect university admission, particularly in an environment where top cumulative scores and 10A profiles are prized.
According to the analysis, this has created a “vicious cycle” in which high‑achieving students avoid the subject, enrolment falls, resources shrink and more students opt out. Chinese is therefore said to be facing a “dual crisis”: a declining number of candidates and increasing difficulty in achieving high grades.
The report also records feedback from teachers and students, who see a widening gap between classroom learning and the demands of the examination. In comprehension load, content orientation and marking approach, the paper is viewed as drifting away from students’ real learning experiences, undermining both performance and confidence.
To break the cycle, the association’s study calls for a comprehensive review of the curriculum and exam design. It recommends making the paper more relevant to Malaysian students’ lived realities through greater use of local Chinese literary works and real-life contextual material, while balancing difficulty with accessibility so that high standards are matched by fairness and reasonableness.
It further suggests that exam-setting and assessment bodies draw on broader professional expertise, study the structures and assessment approaches of other language subjects, and refine question design and marking mechanisms to reduce unnecessary pressure on candidates and provide clearer pathways for high-achieving students to excel.
Beyond examination statistics, the report said that keeping Chinese as a high-barrier subject risks long-term damage to the wider Chinese language education ecosystem – from declining Form Six and university enrolment in Chinese studies to a weakening pipeline of teachers and a widening gap in Chinese-language talent.
If left unaddressed, it cautions, the country could see its multilingual edge eroded and efforts to preserve Chinese cultural heritage further strained – underscoring, in the report’s view, the need for urgent system-level reform.
