An academician has suggested that the Education Ministry allow state or district departments to prepare the Ujian Akhir Sesi Akademik (UASA), or year-end final examination, instead of leaving it to individual schools.
Professor Emeritus Datuk Dr Teo Kok Seong said many parents fear teachers may be more lenient when marking their students’ papers as it is prepared “in-house”.
“Parents are not happy that it is classroom-based assessments. They would prefer an independent body to mark the papers instead of teachers marking their students,” said Teo of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Institute for Ethnic Studies.
“Unfortunately, there is a trust deficit in leaders in all areas of Malaysian life, not just the education sector.”
A trust deficit was also something Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim highlighted. Azimah was, however, in favour of UASA as it “teaches critical thinking and problem-solving, aligning with Malaysia’s push for TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) and digitalisation”.
To tackle the trust deficit, Teo said state education departments could take over the marking of the papers or play a supervisory role.
“If we can’t go back to national-level examinations, we could fine-tune the UASA so parents are more confident in the results,” he said.
“We can have a decentralised examination board at either state or district level and let them prepare the questions and mark them independently.
“I believe this will give parents more confidence in the system.”
Teo, one of the architects of the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025, said that while he preferred a national-level examination as it gives teachers a better understanding of where their students rank among their peers, he has accepted that there is no turning back on the UASA.
He said this in response to Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek telling Parliament on Nov 26 that UPSR (Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah) and PT3 (Pentaksiran Tingkatan 3) – abolished in 2021 and 2022 respectively – would not return. Fadhlina explained the decision aimed to reduce students’ academic stress.
Fadhlina also said the ministry will stick with the UASA for the foreseeable future.
“None of us who worked on the Education Blueprint ever recommended scrapping the national-level examinations. I believe national examinations have more advantages than disadvantages,” said Teo.
“One plus is that you can gauge where students rank among their peers in the country.
“You could be the best student in your school, but you may not crack the top 10 in the state, let alone in the whole country.”
While UASA is not a national-level examination, the ministry has created a question bank to ensure uniformity. Schools will use this database to design test papers, with fixed examination dates nationwide.
Students have to sit for six examinations – Standard 4 to 6 and from Forms 1 to 3 – instead of just UPSR and PT3.
Unlike PT3, which assesses students over three years, UASA evaluates them annually, reflecting their current academic performance.
