TWO weeks ago, the government announced the abolishment of the PT3 examinations.  

With the UPSR abolished a year earlier, Malaysian public-school students now only have one major mandatory examination in their 11-year schooling life. 

The spirit in which the examinations have been abolished is a progressive and accurate one, however the manner of its removal may not be the most well-thought out. 

First off, the timing. 

With many still coming into terms with the overlaps and skipped semesters over Covid-19, with schools, universities and colleges only now resuming some semblance of normalcy, to remove two public examinations could have been done with more consultation with all stakeholders concerned. 

Second, the economic consideration. 

Like it or not, Malaysia’s examination-oriented education system has, over the years, built business ecosystems around it. 

Tuition centres, motivational classes, printing of workbooks, supplementary textbooks, past examination paper compilations and related transportation, food and beverage, stationery and other businesses have been built around them, employing people and creating economic downstream activity for thousands of Malaysians. 

With around 2,500 secondary schools and triple the number of primary schools, and with 2.8 million students enrolled in both, that’s a lot of economic activity that could be directly impacted by a reversal of policy to move into a non-examination-oriented system. 

Third, the maturity of the alternative  

Moving into a non-examination-oriented system, or rather weaning students off examination scores, though healthy in some perspectives, also means having no “real” gatekeeping till a student reaches his or her final year. This accumulated stress may actually prove far greater than having assessments every few years. 

Granted, the school-based assessment still remains, but without proper oversight, and from a random examination question bank, it lacks uniformity required to properly gauge a student, and may cause over or underestimation of a student’s skill or even, as a non-examination-based system would strive to assess, academic versus non-academic inclination. 

Being a mid-level developing country, we still rely on developed countries for academic assistance, scholarships and grants to help develop our own talents, or even our education system. 

Lacking two public examinations denies these providers the ability to objectively assess our student’s capabilities especially against each other.  

Furthermore, local institutions that strive to maintain their own stringent screening processes, may be miss out in such institutions as boarding schools, Mara junior colleges, or the Royal Military College.

Similarly, employers of some international firms, who use these as a uniform guide to assess aptitude, may have to seek an alternative method they may not have at the moment. 

Are we truly ready for a non-examination-based system like Finland, that we seek to emulate so hurriedly? 

It would appear that there are many more things that should have been considered. 

Promotion of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM), elevation of languages and arts, identifying  and preparing pathways for student’s abilities and talents earlier, and tapping those students to strengthen our knowledge economy is much needed, as long as we empower the private and public educational infrastructure to match those needs. 

Digitalisation in schools, bridging the divide between performing and underperforming schools, raising our educational standards to meet regional and global requirements, are other areas of focus that we seem to miss over mere examinations. 

Examinations aren’t inherently bad, just like any other assessment tool out there. They can in fact, be raised to a global standard and diversified to meet today’s complex educational needs. This is what Singapore did with their public examination system, now emulated and studied in countries like China and Indonesia. 

As the saying goes, putting the horse before the cart does not always yield the best results, as we often seem to do with many things, including policy decisions on public education. – June 15, 2022.

* Emmanuel Joseph firmly believes that Klang is the best place on Earth, and that motivated people can do far more good than any leader with motive.