KUANTAN: Eight Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) candidates in Pahang will not be joining their classmates in the examination halls today, as they will sit for their papers from hospitals.
The candidates, hospitalised due to separate accident cases at three hospitals, are among the 20,850 Form Five students who will be sitting for the SPM examination at 11 districts in Pahang, starting today.
State Education Department director Mohammad Rosli Abdul Rahman said the SPM candidates this year included 620 Orang Asli pupils who were registered to sit for their examination at 263 centres across the state.
"Of the total, 1,465 are from state religious secondary schools, 773 from Mara Junior Science College (MRSM), 725 are private candidates, 224 are candidates from private schools, 90 from community religious secondary schools and the remaining candidates from government secondary schools.
"Eight candidates were involved in motorcycle accidents several days ago and today, they will have to sit for their examination in hospitals. The three hospitals involved are the Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital (Kuantan), Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Hospital(Temerloh) and Lipis Hospital," he told reporters after meeting the SPM candidates at SMK Tengku Panglima Perang Tengku Muhammad here today.
Rosli said 116 special needs candidates would be sitting for the SPM examination from today till March 15.
Meanwhile, he said to date, none of the SPM candidates in Pahang was affected by the recent flash floods and no examination centres were utilised as flood relief centres.
He said that in case of floods where roads to the examination centres were submerged, the department had contingency plans in place.
"The Education Department held a meeting with all the relevant agencies under the 'Ops Payung' on Jan 18 to coordinate arrangements in overcoming threats in case of floods. The meetings discussed the setting up of centralised examination centres and providing transportation if required," he said.
On Feb 7, 16 SPM candidates from SM Chong Hwa near here were forced to board a Civil Defence Force (APM) truck to sit for their oral examination after some roads near the examination centre were inundated by floodwaters.