‘Our kids aren’t lab rats’: Education minister says UPSR, PT3 will remain abolished as restoring them no trivial matter

PUTRAJAYA, Sept 23 — The Education Ministry said today that it will stick with the previous administration’s decision to abolish the Standard Six Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) and Form Three Assessment (PT3) examinations, despite calls otherwise.

Minister Fadhlina Sidek said any decision to reinstate the examinations must be made holistically, and will not be made lightly.

“Our children are not lab rats, where exams come and go,” state news agency Bernama quoted her saying here.

“We need consistency, and we have made various specific commitments to strengthen classroom-based assessments and provide teacher training to ensure nothing disrupts [the students’] progress.”

Earlier this month, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the national education policy needs to be revamped as it currently does not provide for the two examinations.

He said this follows the discovery that around 10,177 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) candidates last year did not sit for the exams, and problems with reading, writing, and arithmetic (3M) were among the issues identified.

Fadhlina said the ministry is currently focusing on the new 2027 school curriculum approach and is in the process of drafting a new education development plan to set the direction for the nation’s education system over the next 10 years, starting from 2026.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the MOE said it is proactively implementing various initiatives to address student dropout issues in the SPM exams, identifying three main factors: school dropout, expulsion, and early employment.

“Although the number of students absent from the SPM exam was successfully reduced to 10,160 in 2023, compared to 14,858 the previous year (a 1.2 per cent reduction), the MOE is committed to redoubling efforts to tackle student dropout in the exam,” the statement said.

The UPSR and PT3 examinations were fully abolished in 2022 by the then senior minister of education, Datuk Mohd Radzi Md Jidin, and replaced with the implementation of Classroom Assessment (PBD) and School-Based Assessment (PBS).

UPSR was introduced in 1988 with the fundamental aim of mastering the 4M: reading, writing, arithmetic, and reasoning, while PT3 was implemented in 2014 to replace the Lower Secondary Assessment (PMR).