Whether you were for or against it in the first place, the people at the top have made up their minds.

The Education Ministry announced today that the Primary School Achievement Test (UPSR) will be abolished from this year.

More “good news”, the Form Three Assessment (PT3) for this year has been cancelled.

Speaking at a Press conference today, Senior Minister (Education) Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin said the decision to cancel PT3 was made after taking into account the time available for the students to prepare for the exam, especially related to face-to-face teaching and learning at schools.

In line with the abolishment of UPSR, the Primary School Alternative Assessment (PASR) for special needs students would also be abolished.

Radzi commented that many teachers said that they had to rush to finish the syllabus to focus on ‘latih tubi’ (exercises through workbooks) for UPSR subjects.

“They also recounted how they had to steal time from other subjects to prepare for UPSR subjects and this curbed the teachers’ creativity in order to make lessons more fun for the students.”

On feedback from parents, Radzi said many of them felt pressured to prepare their children for the examination.

This includes sending them for tuition classes as early as Standard One. As for students, many of them were pressured to do well and achieve 6As and so on.

He added that many of the students also found UPSR merely as a component for them to get a placement at boarding schools.”

In announcing the cancellations, the ministry assured that it would introduce an alternative method to evaluate students who are supposed to sit for the two major examinations.

Although no substitute exams will be held, they will strengthen the current evaluation methods.