Parents’ groups slam decision not to reveal schools’ UPSR performance

PETALING JAYA: A parents’ group says the education ministry’s decision not to disclose how schools perform in the UPSR won’t make any difference in improving students’ ability to learn.

Melaka Action Group for Parents (Magpie) chairman Mak Chee Kin said this announcement meant nothing to the quality of education that students received.

“Schools and students are still competing with each other on how many As they can get because the education system itself places emphasis on grades,” he said.

Mak said director-general Amin Senin’s statement on Tuesday was “contradictory” when he said schools were still answerable when students obtained “E” in all subjects.

“It is still linked to results and KPIs (key performance indicators) when they make schools responsible for students’ performance,” he said.

Amin was reported as saying in Sin Chew Daily that the state education department will not hold any press conference to announce the performance of schools, based on the School Average Grade (GPS) score.

“They will hand out the result slips to schools on Thursday and schools will pass the results to the students,” he was quoted as saying.

Amin said schools were also not allowed to hold celebrations for UPSR top scorers.

Noor Azimah Rahim says if UPSR results are kept under wraps, how is the public to know how students have performed?

Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) chairman said the ministry’s announcement “contradicted” itself.

“I thought the ministry encouraged competition between schools and students when they liberalised the education system by opening more international schools.

“Are they now going against what they believe in?”

If there were no reports on UPSR results, how is the public to know how students have performed in the exam, she asked.

Azimah also said schools should stop the practice of getting “A” scorers together for a group photo, saying this was extremely demotivating for others.

“Students, parents and teachers should be allowed to celebrate their achievements together.

“Celebrations are incentives for hard work and to do even better for the future.”

Prof Mohamad Ali Hassan says not disclosing schools’ performance will lead to all kinds of conjectures.

National Parent-Teacher Associations Collaborative Council (PIBGN) president Prof Mohamad Ali Hassan said the government’s move against disclosing schools’ performance will keep parents in the dark and lead to all kinds of conjectures.

A total of 443,794 students sat for the UPSR exam this year, between Sept 11 and 18.

Bernama reported Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan as saying the UPSR results will include the complete achievement of students over the past six years in school, including classroom assessment and co-curricular activities.

He said the UPSR results would be released along with the school-based assessment (PBS) report, which would take into account classroom assessment (PBD), physical activity, sports, and co-curricular assessment (PAJSK), psychometric assessment (PPsi) and primary school alternative assessment (PASR).

“Mainstream pupils will be rated on PBD, PAJSK, PPsi as well as the UPSR results.

“As for special needs students, they will receive a special rating on PASR for following a Special Education.

“Students and parents who will collect the UPSR results will be more fully informed by teachers of their achievements.”

FMT