KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 — The Education Ministry will cease using the Form 3 Assessment (PT3) this year, said Senior Minister Datuk Radzi Jidin.
Radzi said his ministry will introduce more school- and class-based evaluation to replace the formal testing.
The PT3 was among national examinations that were severely disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic that forced schools to close and classes to shift online.
“PMR (Penilaian Menengah Rendah) was introduced in 1993, and PT3 was introduced in 2014. But in 2020 and 2021, PT3 exams were not held.
“Many were curious if it would be the same case for those sitting for PT3 this year. With that, we have decided to abolish the examination completely,” he said in a press conference at the Education Ministry in Putrajaya today.
Instead, Radzi said that the examinations would be replaced by the strengthening of school and classroom-based assessments, where students between Standard 4 and Form 3 would be assessed on a yearly basis.
He explained that the strengthening of these assessments would include three main components, which are classroom assessments, physical, sports and co-curriculum assessments and psychometric assessments.
“In terms of improving the continuous [formative] assessment, we will strengthen training programs for administrators and teachers to strengthen the implementation of continuous assessment in schools.
“Whereas for the Summative Assessment [year end exams], we will strengthen the final test of academic sessions for five selected subjects at the primary school level and all subjects at the lower secondary level through yearly assessments.
He added that to ease the burden of teachers and to standardise the level of examinations nationwide, the Ministry of Education (MoE) would be creating a bank of questions for teachers to pull from to prepare for the final year examinations papers.
“Summative tests, final tests of academic sessions, and a bank of questions for all subjects will be provided by MoE.
"This can reduce the difficulty of teachers to prepare question papers in schools, as well as ensure we get more information for us to analyse the data available from more than five million students nationwide," he said.
Radzi stressed that this new method would allow teachers to better assess their students and identify weaknesses they may have and act on it, adding that should a student really struggle with certain subjects, intervention can happen with the assistance of their parents.
“What’s most important is that we want to stop the pressure students face from people when facing big exams like PT3. It will just be the final exams.
“We have had final exams for years now, but now we will be upgrading it so that assessments can be done in a better manner,” he said.
