Parents’ group wants school-based assessment to be put on hold

PAGE, a parents’ action group, has joined other critics of the school-based assessment system in urging the Education Ministry to put the system on hold. – The Malaysian Insider pic, February 20, 2014.
 Another education pressure group has added their voice to calls that the Education Ministry put on hold the much maligned SBA, the three-year-old school-based assessment system that does away with annual exams.

Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (PAGE), a pro-English education group, has said that SBA or school-based assessment was poorly implemented even though its aims were good.

PAGE honorary secretary Tunku Munawirah Putra said the SBA’s rushed implementation has burdened teachers while parents themselves are sceptical of how student performance is assessed.

“The PBS system is a total system overhaul compared with all the other numerous changes that we have had so far.

“Yet, it is done rather hurriedly and without proper supervision. There are too many uncertainties with SBA,” Munawirah said in a statement today.

The SBA, which was introduced in 2011 at the Primary One level and in 2012 at the From One level, was aimed at replacing the old system of assessing students’ understanding of subjects via mid-term and annual exams.

It is part of the government’s efforts to produce more well-rounded students instead of those who purely excel in academics.

There are no annual exams under SBA. Each day, teachers grade pupils on a subject based on a six-band spectrum starting from band one understand” (the lowest) to band six “exemplary” (the highest).

The data has to be entered each day into a centralised computer system.

Teachers have said that the vagueness in the grading system has prevented them from accurately evaluating whether a student actually understands the material taught to them.

Munawirah referred to this and said that such a system could cause inconsistent marking among teachers not used to such a system.

“PBS requires that teachers evaluate each student individually. This can cause inconsistent marking.

“Teacher evaluation is subjective and varies among different teachers and schools.”

Another common complaint was that teachers are burdened with extra work as the process of entering SBA data every day was tedious and frustrating.

Network congestion is common in the computer system, leading many to wake up at odd hours of the day, when traffic was slow, to enter their data.

“(Teachers) should be focused on one thing, which is teaching our children. Any other chores that take away their classroom and lesson preparation time will not benefit our children,” she said.

Opposition to the SBA has led to teachers’ group Suara Guru-Masyarakat Malaysia (SGMM) or Teacher-Community Voices Malaysia to plan a rally this Saturday at the Education Ministry.

The SGMM, which is said to represent teachers, wants the system abolished.

Its spokesperson Mohd Nor Izzat Mohd Johari said earlier this month that the ministry had three years to repair weaknesses in the system, but did not appear to be improving the SBA and instead was covering up its weaknesses.

“The minister’s (Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh) call to have a dialogue is hypocritical. If he wants to meet and talk to us, then come on February 22,” said Nor Izzat, referring to the protest date.

Besides the SGMM, the National Union of Teaching Professions, which has 180,000 members, has also urged that the SBA be abolished.

The National Union of the Teaching Profession said the SBA was alien to the education culture of Malaysian students who liked having their progress measured in the As, Bs and Cs of annual exams. – February 20, 2014.