Bouquets and brickbats: New Primary School Assessment Report sparks heated debate on social media

KUALA LUMPUR: The brand new Year Six Primary School Assessment Report has received mixed reaction from netizens.

While some believe that it paves the way for a fairer assessment of students, others opined that doing away with an examination-based system may not be the right move.

Earlier today, Year Six pupils nationwide received their Primary School Assessment Reports which comprised not just the Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) exam results, but also physical, classroom and psychometric assessments.

Facebook user Azura Hamzah said the new format is something that she had been looking forward to for a long time.

“Students have potential to grow and be 'somebody'. They should not be ostracised for not acing exams just because they may not be academically-inclined.

“Some do not even have the support from their parents to take part in football or choir for instance, fearing that they might fail their exams.

“The time has come for us to acknowledge the importance of co-curricular activities just as much as we value academic excellence,"she said.

Twitter user @Shppdvg commended the ministry for removing the six A's requirement for enrolment into boarding schools.

"This means that students who enter boarding schools are now fully-rounded students," he said.

Another social media user, Leonard Teh, lauded the effort, saying that it is as a good start for a better education system in the country.

“The next step is for the ministry is to align the evaluation outcome with teaching methods and relevant curriculum in order to maximise the transformation.

“If conventional teaching methods and outdated content remain, the new evaluation method would not make any difference,” he said.

However, not everyone was in favour of the new approach. Facebook user Jarmal Jaafar disagreed with the new assessment, arguing that there is no point in examining a student's competency level if there is no comparison of results.

Another Facebook user, Choo Andy, expressed his concern over the direction of the education system.

“How can we do away with an exam mentality? If a student is not smart, then how can he study engineering or medicine in the future?,” he said.

Education director-general Datuk Dr Amin Senin had said that apart from the UPSR examination results, the Primary School Assessment Report would evaluate the physical, sports and co-curricular component, classroom component and psychometric component.