Cultivating a culture for learning

THE abolition of the UPSR by the Education Ministry is indeed welcomed. It shows that the focus now appears to be on learning and not just scoring a string of As.

Earlier, the ministry decided to do away with examinations at level 1 (Year 1 to Year 3) only, but now all primary level pupils (Year 1 to Year 6) are free of public examinations. This move will definitely have a significant effect on reversing the exam-oriented aspect of

our education system in years to come.

Over the years, many of us may have viewed our education system as too exam-oriented and that our students just memorise and regurgitate their lessons, but do not learn much. Findings of studies conducted by local researchers have confirmed such views.

In my opinion, there are two important questions that always went unanswered: “What does being exam-oriented mean?” and “Where do we start on reversing this exam-based education model?”

A worst-case scenario of the exam-oriented system that I can think of is a high-stakes standardised final exam at a certain level that drives everything that happens inside the classroom.

Many studies have reported the deleterious effects of standardised high-stakes exams, including teachers studying previous exam papers to spot questions and students memorising answers to the most frequently tested topics/questions. The focus of both the teachers and students in such cases is to nail the high-stakes exam, never mind the fact that rote learning is the means to do it.

I believe it would be wise to move away from the obsessive testing system and begin promoting a culture of learning right from the foundation or primary level.

Many education systems, such as in France and Japan, expose their students to high-stakes exams

only after establishing a strong learning-oriented culture at the primary level. Similarly, our students should be trained to do meaningful learning instead of rote learning before they encounter their first high-stakes exam, which is the SPM.

The employment of formative assessment activities can also take the edge off the exam-oriented education system at SPM level.

However, there are parents who still see exams as the main/sole motivation for their children to study. The Education Ministry may therefore encounter some challenges in the introduction of a learning-based culture until a better understanding of the concept is developed among these parents.

Education systems in other countries such as Finland and New Zealand have proven that we do not need to focus too much on standardised exams at the early levels of education.

Individualised assessment activities are the preferred options in such countries, and this can only be done by reducing standardised exams.

I hope the Education Ministry’s quality assurance mechanism

will be effective enough to ensure that quality formative-summative (synergistic) assessment activities are conducted throughout the primary level so that pupils at the end of Year 6 are truly learning-oriented.

DR ALLA BAKSH MOHAMED AYUB KHAN , School of Languages, Literacies and Translation Universiti Sains Malaysia