THE Education Ministry has decided that the reintroduction of the Primary School Achievement Test (UPSR) and the Form Three Assessment (PT3) will depend on the results of the tabling of the Malaysia Education Development Plan 2025 (PPPM 2025) that is due in three years.

Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said any decision to reintroduce both exams would need to refer to facts and data collected throughout the PPPM 2025 and not to existing tendencies.

“We understand parents’ concerns after the abolition of the exams and this matter has gone through a long process with the stakeholders, parents and teachers before the decision to abolish UPSR was made,” she told reporters today after meeting with Nibong Tebal residents at her service centre.

“So we have to table the results of the PPPM 2025 report first to improve the education system.”

She said the ministry’s stand is to strengthen school-based learning to improve and develop the students’ potential rather than an exam-based approach, as a holistic development for children could not focus on one aspect alone.

On a separate issue, Fadhlina said the ministry is committed to ensuring that the school session that was pushed to March last year will be returned to its original schedule in January soon, but could not be implemented next year as several justifications were needed, in accordance to the Education Act 1996.

She said any change to the school session needed to take the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia, Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia and Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia examination schedules into consideration, along with local economic factors and the year-end floods.

The school session for 2022/2023 was changed to begin in March 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and movement control order.

The school session for 2023/2024 will begin on March 10 or 11 depending on the individual state. – Bernama, December 24, 2022.