KUALA LUMPUR, April 9 — The Pakatan Harapan Education Committee today chided the Education Ministry (MoE) and its minister for failing to take seriously the education process during the Covid-19 pandemic, after a test in the second session of the 2021 SPM examinations yesterday was found to be recycled.

In a statement today, the committee which has former education minister Maszlee Malik amongst its members, questioned why the Malaysian Examination Board (MEB) did not provide a new test as it had done in previous years’ examinations.

"MEB and MoE must assure the public whether the questions used are the same questions as the previous session and are not leaked and still remain confidential for repeat SPM candidates,” it said.

Yesterday, students who were sitting for the second session of the 2021 SPM examinations found that the questions in the Bahasa Melayu (Listening) examination were the same as in the first session conducted in February.

To note, the second session was made to accommodate students who missed the earlier session due to Covid-19, floods or for students who were granted special exemption by the Examination Director.

"Some values ​​need to be given attention by MEB and MoE to prevent this situation from happening again, among them is that MEB must be prepared with enough questions for various editions as the current situation causes some candidates to sit for SPM repeat sessions,” added the PH committee.

Other members listed as part of the committee were former deputy education minister Teo Nie Ching, Setiawangsa MP Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, Tampin MP Datuk Hasan Baharom, Sekijang MP Natrah Ismail, Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim, Tangga Batu MP Rusnah Aluai and Batu Gajah MP Sivakumar Varatharaju Naidu — also known as V. Sivakumar