PUTRAJAYA: SOME 400,000 students are expected to apply for next year's admission to boarding schools through the single entry point application system or Pentaksiran Kemasukan Murid ke Sekolah Khusus (PKSK).
Education director-general Datuk Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim said the assessment for the applications would be conducted through online and written tests.
She said the application system for admission of Form One and Form Four students was an enhancement to the single entry point which started two years ago, and that improvements were made by including the Writing Articulation which comprised 10 per cent of the overall assessment mark.
"This component aims to assess the students' creativity and critical thinking. There is no right or wrong answer."
The other two parts, she said, were Emotional Quotient, Spiritual Quotient and Social Skills Quotient or SSQ (20 per cent) and Intellectual Quotient, general knowledge and problem-solving (70 per cent), which used the multiple-choice questions format.
Applicants are given 90 minutes to finish the assessments.
She said the assessments for soft skills and intellectual quotient would be conducted online, while the written articulation test would be done in writing.
She said these assessments would apply to applicants for fully-residential Schools (SBP), National Religious Secondary Schools (SMKA), Technical Secondary Schools (SMT), Vocational Colleges (KV) and the Royal Military College (MTD). Maktab Rendah Sains Mara will still use its existing assessment system.
There are a total of 44,653 available placements for both Form 1 and Form 4 in these schools.
"The application for admission to these special schools involve SBP (Form 1 and Form 4), SMKA (Form 1 and Form 4), SMT (Form 4), KV (Year 1 Sijil Vokasional Malaysia – SVM), and MTD (Form 4)," she said, adding that PKSK served as the basic assessment while schools of the specific niches might conduct further evaluation on their applicants.
She said all applicants would sit for the assessments centrally at 555 designated assessment centres nationwide.
Online applications could be made from Sept 7 to Oct 2.
Applicants can start checking which assessment centres they have been assigned to from Oct 7 to Oct 23 for Form 1 and from Oct 12 to Nov 6 for Form 4.
Assessments will be held from Oct 12 to 23 for Form 1 and Oct 26 to Nov 6 for Form 4 and Year 1 SVM.
Applications for admission to Form 1 can be accessed through the link https//:spskt1.moe. gov.my and applications to Form 4 via https//:spskt4.moe.gov.my.