By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Dec 16: The decision to lower the passing grade for school-based exams from 40 to 20 per cent may jeopardise efforts to develop competent and globally competitive students, warns Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) Youth chief Datuk Snowdan Lawan.
Snowdan expressed concern over reports circulating online about the lowered passing grade for the Academic Year’s Final Assessment (UASA), which replaced the previously centralised UPSR for Year 6 and PT3 for Form 3 national examinations.
“(The reduction) means we are lowering the passing grade in order to obtain a minimum pass.
“This does not augur well, and in the long run, we won’t be able to produce quality minds,” he said in a statement today.
He highlighted the importance of exams and regular assessments as tools to gauge students’ learning capabilities, adding that abolishing standardised exams like UPSR and PT3 deprives parents of clear indicators of their children’s academic performance.
Snowdan also called for Malaysia’s education policies to align with global standards rather than merely meeting domestic requirements.
He warned that insufficient competency at the international level would place Malaysia’s workforce at a disadvantage in global forums, offshore employment, and other competitive arenas.
On the other hand, he commended Sarawak’s commitment to maintaining exams and implementing initiatives such as the Dual Language Programme (DLP), which he said enhances students’ learning capabilities.
He praised Sarawak’s balanced approach of upholding Bahasa Malaysia in the syllabus while ensuring students master English as the global lingua franca.
“This will assist us to educate and produce professionals like engineers, doctors, technicians, lawyers and academicians. These minds are needed as we embark to progress as a developed State by 2030 and onwards,” he added. – DayakDaily
