No more UPSR and PMR

Since yesterday, many parents were talking about school without exams. The proposal was made by the Malaysian Examina-tions Syndicate (MES) to abolish the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) and the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR).

The proposed school-based assessment system to replace two major public examinations would increase the workload of teachers, state National Union of Teaching Profession chairman Lim Ming Tzong said.
“In this modern times, more and more parents are relying on teachers to not only educate their children but also to discipline them.
“This has made the teaching profession become unattractive and if this proposed system is to be implemented, teachers will be overburdened with the responsibility of planning, implementing and preparing the reports for the assessment,'' he said.

Some teacher were too frantic about it and start accusing the ministry of trying to overload teachers with another task, ie, to run school based assessment test in the place of UPSR and PMR.

Whatever it is, I don't agree that teachers will be burden with this, because all this while they have been doing it with all the monthly test, not forgetting the twice annually school exam which was never ever overlooked by any school.

With the implementation of school based assessment test or examination the teachers will surely be more responsible for their pupils achivement as the test and examinations which their pupils sit are being prepared by the teachers themselves.

The education ministry I assume must have something in their mind when the proposal was made. Even by now, the ministry has decided that the teachers in charge of examinations be given a computer, which is to be used to gather information and data of students achivement, to store students progress records and other necessary items in running the examinations successfully.

It wouldn't surprised me if extra hands are hired in schools by the ministry in years to come, to make sure that school based examinations or assessment test are conducted in a fairly orderly manner plus taking off the workload for teachers to fill in forms, to key in datas' of students achivement or to prepare students progress records and certificates.

So what has teachers to lose in this proposal? I don't tthink the NUPT chairman of Penang state really knows what he is talking about.

I fully support these opinion:

SJK(C) Kwong Hwa Parent-Teac-her Association (PTA) chairman Ong Thean Lye welcomed the proposal, saying “the present system is too exam-oriented”.
“Students these days just want to concentrate on the exam subjects while a subject like Moral Education, which is important in moulding a student’s personal character and development, is not given any attention,” he said.
Parent Audrey Cheong, 41, has always believed that a student does not need to have a string of As to be successful in life.
Cheong, who has a daughter in Year One, said she had even asked teachers in her daughter’s school not to put her in the first class.
“I want her to enjoy her school life as learning should be fun. If she is in the first class, she would be pressured to do well,” she said.

I think these are well headed people than the one above