DECEMBER 2 –– The recent explanation from the government that some primary and secondary school exams, namely the UPSR and PTS, will remain abolished in order to reduce students’ stress is, as no doubt many educators will tell you, not ideal.
Sure, the move may curtail some anxiety. Sure, the refocused emphasis on inquiries, exploration, experience, contextual study etc will surely open more minds.
And sure the country will save a lot more paper as a whole (smile). But ultimately, I’m not convinced this is the best way forward.
Because unless students never have to sit for any exams whatsoever in their lifetime, this strikes me as simply delaying the inevitable.
I also think that exams, despite all their superficiality and questionable recall value, remain a sort of “baseline” that every student should experience.
Not unlike how learning one’s scales and arpeggios is necessary if for no other reason that one has undergone something that generations before have (again, yes, it’s controversial, but we should always think twice before chucking away something that’s been around for centuries).
Nevertheless, I think the biggest issue isn’t the existence of exams per se, it’s our attitude towards academic learning and “success in life” as a whole.
If students were taught to love their subjects and enjoy learning as a whole, the assessment method itself will be (almost) secondary. It’s ironic that even in cases where “group learning” or “active learning” is present, students may still feel hyper-pressured to succeed because academia remains a locus of “status achievement” as opposed to learning fulfilment.
So, as I see it, the first problem is this mindset where academic competitiveness meets young adult social ranking, where the school is seen as a place to obtain prestige and standing in the (teenage) world.
That’s the #1 source of pressure, NOT which question will come out in the Physics exam.
Deal with this obsession with “standing out”, address this fear of being “seen as a failure” and voila students won’t have to worry about exams any more than being the last one to finish reading Harry Potter.
Having said that, by all means let’s give credit where credit is due.
For the Education Ministry to put more attention to non-rote methods of teaching and learning is certainly a plus. If nothing else it opens up students to more diverse ways of understanding and grappling with subjects.
Hopefully such approaches will also communicate the joy of discussion, discovery, design and what-not.
So perhaps there should be some rethinking on both sides. The Ministry needs to understand that exams aren’t the problem and parents need to see that they also aren’t the solution.
Likewise, we can celebrate the fresh moves from the ministry without necessarily endorsing everything they do.
Finally, for the sake of our children, we should absolutely remind them that their report card –– regardless of which assessment method or pedagogical approach was used to obtain the marks –– is by far NOT the most important thing in the world.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
