Union: Teachers prefer national examinations to school-based assessment – The Borneo Post

Zulkiflee Sebli

KUCHING (June 3): Many teachers prefer national examinations to school-based assessment, said Sarawak Bumiputera Teachers Union (KGBS) president Zulkiflee Sebli.

According to him, students are more focused when there are examinations compared to school-based assessment because they place more importance on examinations.

In addition, school-based assessment will add on to the work burden of the teachers, he said today when commenting on the abolition of the Form 3 Assessment (PT3) starting this year.

Yesterday Senior Minister Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Mohd Jidin said the Education Ministry, in abolishing the PT3, will introduce more school- and class-based evaluation to replace the formal testing, where students between Primary 4 and Form 3 would be assessed on a yearly basis.

Zulkiflee said other than an increase in workload, there is no other issue for teachers as they have already been exposed to classroom assessment (PBD) prior to the abolition of PT3.

State Education Department (JPN) and District Education Office (PPD) always request reports and data from the school. Teachers have deadlines to meet to complete PBD reports despite their daily busy schedule, he said.

Zulkiflee added there is no problem in completing the Form 3 syllabus within the stipulated timeframe as teachers are very committed to their work.

Teachers can use various methods to complete the syllabus. There may even be a small number of teachers who have to use time outside of the official learning and facilitating process (PdPc) to complete the syllabus but we are confident they can and are ready to do so, he said.

Zulkiflee added many primary school teachers hope that the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) would be re-established so that pupils will be more focused on their learning.

With UPSR, pupils will have a target when they attend school. In the past, the first thing they thought of when entering Primary 6 was UPSR and getting good results to continue further.

UPSR facilitated the placement of students into secondary schools, he said.

The UPSR was abolished last year.

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Union: Teachers prefer national examinations to school-based assessment - The Borneo Post