Ministry: No need to resit PT3
NATION
Saturday, 05 Oct 2019
By SANDHYA MENON, CLARISSA CHUNG and AUSTIN CAMOENS
PETALING JAYA: Form Three students will not have to resit the PT3 examination. Instead of feeling relieved, however, some students say this is not fair and they would like to take the exam again.
This comes after days of anxiety and chaos for the students, teachers and parents involved.
In a statement issued yesterday evening, the Education Ministry said the PT3 is a school-based assessment and its accountability is shared with the Examinations Syndicate.
“The ministry is committed to ensuring justice to candidates. The validity of the PT3 results will be conducted according to standard procedures practised globally, ” it said.Since Monday, Form Three students have been receiving leaked PDF copies of actual exam papers through chat groups on instant messaging apps such as Telegram.
On Thursday, The Star quoted a ministry official as saying that the ministry was probing claims of leaks.Since then, social media had been buzzing with uncertainty over whether Form Three students would have to resit the PT3. The source of the leaks are unknown.
The National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) has urged the public to give the Examinations Syndicate time to investigate the leaks.
“Give them space to do their work and investigate it with the relevant authorities.
“If not, the culprits won’t be identified and the problem will recur in the future, ” said NUTP secretary-general Harry Tan.
Not all are pleased with the news that students will not have to resit the exam.
Expressing frustration, Prem, a teacher from Kajang, said: “But everyone is going to score excellently in the exam.
“This alleged leak is a product of poor planning and implementation coupled with selfish and unethical motives by all parties involved.
“Has anyone looked at the long-term implications? These so-called ‘A’ students don’t deserve their status if they cheated through leaked questions.
“When they are placed in the Science and Art streams, will they have the right attitude to follow through or will they quit halfway knowing that they aren’t capable?” he added.
Form Three student Manveer Singh Deol, who attends a school in Bangi, said he was amazed when he saw his weaker classmates answering the PT3 papers faster than they had in previous exams.
“I saw them smiling as they answered the Mathematics questions. They told me that they got the actual paper the day before the exam.“I wondered why I put in so much effort to study for this exam since Form One.
“I’m angry and I hope the people in charge can take some form of action against the perpetrator, ” Manveer said.
Another student, who wanted to be known only as Jenani, said the atmosphere in her school was unusually happy after each paper ended.
“Whatever is happening is so unfair. I have been staying up late to revise my subjects.
“It’s stressing me out and I feel like giving up, ” she said.
A teacher at a secondary school in Subang Jaya said his school was already looking at devising methods to stream their students when they enter Form Four next year as they questioned the validity of their students’ exam results.
“My school is planning to fall back on the students’ PT3 trial results since everyone will pass the exam with flying colours this time around.
“The PT3 trials were held with care and tight security measures. It will put the actual PT3 exam to shame.“The Examinations Syndicate should just leave the setting of test papers to schools; we will follow strict measures to ensure that no leaks happen.
“We do give our students some tips and teach them to be prepared for any situation in an exam, but never would a teacher leak papers in its entirety like what happened with PT3 2019, ” he said.
“A leak is a serious issue. Have we stopped to think about the honest ones who studied hard and revised accordingly?
“Looking at the situation, we are worried about the students who are going to demand to join the Science stream next year, ” he added.
The teacher said four students had filed complaints with him, stating that they saw their classmates reading answers for the Design and Technology paper prior to the exam.
At least 10 teachers from his school had sent complaints to the Examinations Syndicate’s email address following The Star’s report on Thursday.
Sharing some messages that his students had sent him, some said they would rather resit the exams.
“I’d prefer having to resit because it’s not fair. Some people work hard while others just memorise answers, ” read one message from a student.There are 450,000 PT3 candidates every year.
In 2014, the PT3 replaced the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examination.
PT3 is one of the four assessments under the overall school-based assessment system. The other three components are the school assessment, assessment of physical, sports and co-curricular activities, and psychometric assessment.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said investigating examination paper leaks would be up to the police authorities.
When contacted, Selangor CID chief Senior Asst Comm Fadzil Ahmat said he had not been told about any police report lodged over the leaked papers in the state.
Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/10/05/ministry-no-need-to-resit-pt3#QdL8uE7QZ1JExKvh.99
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