SIBU, April 10: Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) urges the new Education Minister to be quick to revamp their assessment method, as Cambridge did, and restore confidence to the students and teachers about the upcoming public examinations.
In a press statement today, PBK secretary-general Priscilla Lau said parents were worried about their children missing out on so many school days.
“Schools and especially teachers are correct to be concerned about fitting all the missed classes into the remainder of the school year. For those students sitting for their upcoming public examinations parents, students and teachers alike are panicking,” she asserted.
In UK, for example, she pointed out that upon the announcement of the lockdown of schools, the Cambridge Board of Examiners immediately issued a worldwide notice to all students who are sitting for their April to June examinations (O levels, IGCSE, AS levels, A levels) to revamp their assessment method.
In addition, she disclosed that as the oldest examination board, Cambridge has been fluent with the change of times and situation and immediately made the decision to award their certificates to all their students.
“Without the usual need for examinations as we know it. Cambridge has pledged to honour the students and teachers who have worked so hard towards the Cambridge examinations by allowing them to submit assessed coursework, mock examinations results and other school work that will help Cambridge award these students with the relevant certificates.
“Cambridge even goes further to reassure the students that these certificates are not inferior to the ones where controlled examinations actually take place and that places of higher education shall accept these certificates without prejudice,” she said.
The Malaysian government she opined could assist our students in this way.
She said controlled examinations may not be the best option right now because it places undue pressure on the students and teachers to perform at their optimum when clearly this is not possible.
Conducting online classes is not an option either because of the vast number of students in a class and the remoteness of some to the internet.
“Therefore as reopening schools in the near future is not the best foreseeable option as the pandemic Covid-19 has to be not only under control but virtually eradicated,” she said.—DayakDaily
