KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry has yet to make a decision whether to postpone next month's Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examinations and for now, the yearly examinations will proceed as scheduled.
Deputy Education Minister II Datuk Mohamad Alamin said the ministry will consider all relevant factors, especially the recent spike in Covid-19's Omicron variant cases before a decision can be made.
He said this following a request by students and parents for this year's SPM examinations to be postponed until the daily Covid-19 cases have subsided.
Parents and students had also opted to launch a change.org petition for the examinations to be postponed to April instead of March.
Alamin said while the ministry is aware of the request, it has yet to make a final decision on the matter.
"We have yet to receive full information on this and when there is a decision, an announcement will be made by the minister (Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Jidin).
"We will have to take into account several matters and this includes the current Covid-19 situation in the country.
"We will make a decision after considering all the relevant factors but what I can say now is that there are no changes to the scheduled dates for SPM examinations," he told the New Straits Times.
The NST reported today that calls are mounting for the authorities to postpone the SPM examination set to take place next month.
Parents and students alike said apart from safety concerns for those taking the ongoing SPM oral tests, the fear of infection could also affect students' psychological wellbeing as they prepared for the exams.
Yesterday, it was reported that SPM candidates have initiated an online campaign to pressure the authorities into postponing the examination until the Covid-19 situation was under control.
A change.org petition titled "Postpone SPM 2021 as Covid Cases are Rising" was launched four days ago and so far, it had garnered over 1,000 signatories.
The SPM candidates for the 2021 cohort began their oral examinations on Tuesday. The session is scheduled to run until Feb 24.
Written examinations are scheduled to take place from March 2 to 29.
The Health Ministry's figures showed that out of 385 active Covid-19 clusters, 235 involved education institutions.