Form 3 back to exam- based system this year?

 

Thousands of Form Three students nationwide,  the first batch of the Pentaksiran Berasaskan Sekolah (Evaluation based on school work) (PBS) system implemented in 2011, are facing the prospect of their work in Form 1 and 2 being ignored as part of their final mark results.

Introduced by the Education Ministry, the system is supposed to reduce the reliance on examinations to determine the final results of the pupils like the Penilaian Menengah Rendah examination.

However, now it is understood that the Examinations Syndicate will rely solely on final examinations in October, to determine the results for this year.

Teachers and school administrators who attended a briefing by the syndicate recently revealed that this new development is bound to affect the policy introduced by Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

"Officers from the Education Syndicate have informed us that the Form One and Form Two reports by teachers will not be taken into consideration for Form Three.

"What is the use of teachers being asked to keep the evidence of the pupils (on their progress) for subjects like Bahasa Melayu, English, Maths, Science when in the end they would have to sit for an examination to determine their final results," the text message obtained by Malaysiakini read.

The matter was also confirmed by the anti-PBS system leader and the Suara Guru Masyarakat Malaysia working group chief, Mohd Noor Izzat Mohd Johari, who said he received similar information from teachers in Hulu Selangor.

"I received information that the examination system will be reimplemented for several subjects in October this year, based on what had been indicated by the examination syndicate. This is against the spirit of the PBS system that abolished the PMR examinations.

"I received information from a school administrator that the PBS evaluation done from 2011 to 2013 will not be used to determine the form three results. This means the PBS system employed from 2011 for pupils is a wasted effort."

'Stop system at once'

Noor Izzat expressed regret that the Education Ministry’s lack of commitment in taking action to resolve the problem, when it knew the system had its weaknesses, after promises to rectify them by April.

"I urge the PBS system be stopped immediately, and the ministry rectify it until it works or withdraw the PBS system once and for all," he said.

He and his group had earlier met Second Education Minister Idris Jusoh (centre in photo) last month to air their grouses over the system.

Noor Izzat said whatever that had been discussed with Idris seems to have fallen on deaf ears as seen by this recent development.

The issue PBS  also became a subject of debate among Umno delegates during the recent party AGM wanting the government to re-look into its implementation, and improve the system with  Muhyiddin giving the assurance that it would be improved by April.

Protest at ministry next month

Noor Izzat said a peaceful protest is planned for Feb 22, a result of teachers' dissatisfaction over  the PBS system and its various weaknesses.

"This is to pressure the ministry to either stop or abandon the PBS system. We also demand that the ministry apologise to teachers, parents and pupils for causing the hardship as a result of a weak policy," he said.

He said the infrastructure should already have been put in place before its implementation.

Previously, in the anti-PBS system facebook page teachers had complained of spending long hours just to key-in the data of its pupils because of poor servers.

This had forced them into keying in the data several times or usually staying up until early morning to have the information in place.

They also had groused about how taxing their work was as they had to also prepare lessons.

Malaysiakini is attempting to contact the Examination Syndicate for comments.