IPOH, April 9 — The Education Ministry (MoE) will examine the report from the Malaysian Examinations Board before any action is taken following allegations that the same set of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2021 questions were used for the second session of the examination that began on Thursday.

Deputy Education Minister I Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon said any related parties were also expected not to speculate to ensure that the matter could be resolved properly.

"I have just received the information and I think whatever (assumption) there may be, we have to wait for the report from the examination board. After that, we will have a discussion before appropriate follow-up action is taken,” he said after holding a meeting with members of the Perak Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCCI) here today.

Yesterday, a media outlet reported that several parties urged the MoE and the Examination Board to respond to allegations that the Bahasa Melayu examination questions (Listening Test) in the second session was said to be identical to the first SPM session that had been shared widely.

The second special SPM session is for students who were unable to take the examination recently due to Covid-19, floods as well as those who were given special exemptions by the Director of Examinations.

In a separate development, Mah said, a total of 4932 vacancies for teachers under special recruitment on a ‘one off’ basis will be resolved soon under the jurisdiction of the Education Service Commission (SPP).

"This matter has been discussed many times. It’s actually an ongoing process. It needs to go through the SPP. We will keep it updated from time to time,” he said.

He added despite acknowledging that there were complaints from various parties regarding the delay in the appointment for the vacancy, it needed to be fine-tuned based on the standard operating procedures (SOP) set by the SPP.

He also did not rule out the possibility that the vacancy quota would be filled by candidates who did not have a contract of service (COS) in the education profession.

On March 29, Education Minister Datuk Radzi Jidin said that a total of 13,770 out of 18,702 vacancies for teacher positions under special recruitment on a ‘one off’ basis have been filled nationwide thus far.

Radzi said there were only 4,932 remaining vacancies under this special recruitment that needed to be filled by qualified candidates. — Bernama