Flawed marking system

Reference is made to, “When a right answer is wrong” by Frustrated Student of

Banting, Selangor (The Star, Wednesday 21 February 2024). PAGE echoes the

frustration as we had been made to believe that we had gone past “teaching to the

test” where key words, facts and figures were memorised and then regurgitated by

students to maximise marks, learning little, if at all, ignoring the how and why

questions which provoke the thinking process.

It appears that the flawed marking scheme by the Ministry of Education has returned

to haunt us under the leadership of our Minister of Education. Instead teachers and

students merely succumb, leaving little room for any creativity, yet students are

expected to exercise higher order thinking skills, problem-solve and be innovative.

To overcome such rigidity and stupidity, school-based assessments at UPSR and PT3

were introduced where teachers were more liberal in marking. Students were free to

express themselves as teachers assessed students under their care. Teachers were no

more “teaching to the test” but instead provided a more holistic and personalised

teaching and learning system of educating, understanding, interacting and reasoning

for all students rather than focussing on those academically-inclined only and

neglecting the rest.

The Ministry of Education has discreetly introduced the Ujian Akhir Sesi Akademik

2024 (UASA) for Standards Four to Form Three without parental knowledge. So now

we have six national examinations. We have returned to “teaching to the test”

dumbing down the education system by making our children who have infinite

potential to memorising key words, facts and figures and regurgitating them to

maximise marks, ignoring the thinking process.

Incidentally, six-year-old pupils who are in a non-Dual Language Programme (DLP) class

where science and mathematics are taught in Malay or Tamil are marked wrong, if

they answer in the English language, even when the answer is correct. It is cruel.