SCHOOL-BASED assessments (PBS) and year-end exams are the new evaluation standards for secondary school students following the abolishment of Form Three Assessment, Education Minister Mohd Radzi Jidin said today.

The minister said the assessments are to ensure that teachers can intervene if students start to lag in their studies.

PBS is made up of three components – classroom (PBD); physical, sports and curricular activities and psychometric.

“Through PBD, teachers can monitor a students reading, writing and counting skills,” Radzi told the Dewan Rakyat.

“Teachers can then plan and modify their teaching methods during PBD to help students boost their command of a subject.

“It will also equip students with a strong base of knowledge for the next level of their education.”

Under PBD, formative and summative assessments would be implemented, Radzi said.

One of the components of summative assessment is the year-end exam, he said.

“The year-end exam papers are prepared by experienced teachers for Form 1-3 and the questions are kept in a question bank.

“The school will come up with the questions for assessment based on this system. A scoring system is also available to help teachers.

“The year-end exams allow students’ achievement nationwide to be measured and for the ministry to come up with plans if there is a need of intervention,” he said.

Radzi however stressed that the reporting of the performance is not to compare the performance of each student or schools.

“It is to gauge the nationwide performance in literacy and numeracy, so that we can intervene if there is a need,” he said.

“For example, if the literacy level in a specific area is low, the ministry can step in and intervene.

“What we want to emphasise is to build students up, to ensure they can reach a level of understanding from early intervention.” – October 5, 2022.