KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry will release a new examination schedule for Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2021 candidates.
Senior Education Minister Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Jidin said the ministry decided to do so after taking into account the feedback received from candidates and their parents.
"I have discussed with the Examination Syndicate and top officials in the Education Ministry to gather and analyse all the feedbacks we have received on this matter.
"We will be releasing a new examination schedule soon," he announced through a short video that was posted on his Facebook page.
The ministry previously decided that the SPM examinations for the 2021 cohort would be from March 2 to March 20, 2022.
However, many candidates argued that the compact schedule will only worsen their exam jitters as they sit for an examination that would decide their life trajectory.
SPM, the country's most important public examination, is typically conducted over a course of four weeks. This year, however, the duration of the examination was shortened to two weeks.
The most hectic period for candidates would fall between March 7 and March 11, where candidates had to sit for several core papers back-to-back in a single day.
For instance, based on the current schedule, candidates will have to take History (Paper 1) and History (Paper 2) as well as Computer Science (Paper 1) on March 8.
The very next day, they will have to sit for both papers of Additional Mathematics – arguably one of the toughest subjects in the SPM syllabus.
Furthermore, the SPM 2021 candidates would also be the first cohort to take the examination based on the new KSSM syllabus.
Several candidates and their parents took to social media to vent their frustrations, with the hashtag #UbahJadualSPM.
A petition, titled #SemakSemulaJadualSPM2022, which was launched on the change.org platform, had garnered over 21,000 signatures as of press time.
The New Straits Times also spoke to some candidates who shared their concerns on the condition of anonymity.
One candidate, who wanted to be known as Zara, lamented that the 2021 SPM batch always ended up becoming "lab rats" that were subjected to revised syllabus and new examination formats.
"At the primary school level, we were the first batch to sit for UPSR under the newly-introduced Standard Based Curriculum for Primary Schools (KSSR) syllabus.
"We will also be the first cohort to undergo a new SPM examination format.
"Now, this cramped-up schedule makes us feel like the odds are really stacked against us. Why are we being "punished" like this?" she said.
Another candidate, by the name of Larry, hoped the ministry would empathise with the SPM 2021 candidates as they endured a bumpy road to complete their syllabus.
"The Movement Control Order (MCO) badly disrupted our learning. Online learning certainly cannot compensate for physical classes.
"Since we could not attend tuition classes during MCO, we had to work through the syllabus all by ourselves for the most part.
"Please at least give us some breathing space when we sit for our exams," he said.