KUALA LUMPUR – While most SPM candidates belatedly sat for their 2021 exams in March this year, many had to defer their sitting even further to April due to a resurgence of Covid-19 or heavy floods, especially in the east coast.
Many are still confused and apprehensive about the new National Secondary School Standard Curriculum (KSSM) syllabus, which replaced the old Integrated Curriculum for Secondary Schools (KBSM) last year.
While some students and parents reckon that KSSM is supposed to be more advanced, there are pupils like Zahra Mohamad Zaki who feel they are being treated like “lab rats” after being exposed to it.
They say the new syllabuses for the various subjects generally meant new formats for examinations, but this aspect was not delved into by the teachers till late 2021.
“The SPM teachers lacked guidelines on how to carry out lessons and taught us in the same way as they did previously,” said Zahra, whose twin brother is also an SPM candidate.
By the middle of the year, teachers were trying to decipher the new syllabus format for exams.”
This resulted in teachers rushing at the last minute to familiarise students with the KSSM exam format.
“Teachers were going through answer schemes in new formats. We did not have the advantage of past years’ examination papers as everything was new.”
Students do see benefits in the KSSM system such as in the introduction of questions related to higher order thinking skills and the new focus on group projects and classroom assessments, which meant more critical thinking.
“But I wish the format and examination schemes had been pre-planned before the implementation of the whole curriculum,” added Zahra, who hopes that the fruits of her labour for the duration of secondary school will be realised when her SPM results are released.
Parents are very concerned and disappointed. Mohammed Zaki Samsudin, Zahra’s father, is a parent-teacher association president who feels that there is a lack of clarity on the format for assessments for the new KSSM curriculum and this affects the teaching for SPM students.
To finalise everything – exam assessment format, sample questions – should be ready one year in advance of a new curriculum being implemented,” he said.
He added that previously under the KBSR system, the marks for the listening test were not included in the Bahasa Malaysia and English papers schemes, but this year the marks are counted.
“Many parents made complaints on the quality of the audio used for the listening tests,” he added. The voices were muffled, and students had problems deciphering what was said on the recording.
Laboratory classes non-existent
Rena Kumari, whose son Kheashien Qumar, is sitting for SPM this year, said that laboratory classes are non-existent for the science subjects. There is a lack of hands-on experience for chemistry, physics, and biology classes.
Despite the high number of Covid-19 cases, classes should have been opened for SPM students so that they can do supervised laboratory work.
“Or alternatively, another system by the ministry should have been designed to bring the laboratory to SPM students.
“This batch also attended the least number of face-to-face classes, due to Covid -19, taking into consideration Form 4 classes as well,” said Rena.
No doubt the new KSSM syllabus for SPM 2022 requires the pupils to think outside the box.
However, it is harder to navigate, especially for the 2021/2022 batch, as they have to struggle to adapt, with the newly introduced format for their exams, she explained.
Rena said what makes it harder is that online classes are not efficient, and she had to source a tuition centre to compensate for the lack of laboratory sessions for her child.
As her son felt demotivated, Rena said she spends long hours counselling him prior to the SPM exams.
Floods, Covid-19 game changers for SPM
The SPM written exams began on March 2 and are scheduled to end on March 29, with a total of 407,097 candidates in 3,382 examination centres registered nationwide.
Education Minister Datuk Mohd Radzi Md Jidin said that SPM candidates who missed the first session after testing positive for Covid-19 and undergoing quarantine, can sit for the second session of the exams in April.
With Malaysia reporting record numbers of Covid-19 infections, the fear remains that SPM clusters could form in examination centres, despite strict standard operating procedures.
The flood situation has also caused SPM students, especially in the east coast states of Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang, to remain vigilant as many schools have been inundated due to rising waters.
More than 700 SPM students from seven schools in Kelantan will be allowed to take their exams in April while 319 of the 18,819 SPM students in Terengganu who were affected by the floods were placed at alternative examination centres. – The Vibes, March 11, 2022
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