Compulsory pass for History not meant to burden students: Idris Jusoh

The government's move in making History a compulsory subject to pass in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination from this year onwards is not to burden students, but to increase their knowledge of the country's history.

Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh (pic) said it was an effort toward teaching students to become good citizens.

"It is not our intention to fail them. We intend to pass them, but at least let them know the basic history of our country.

"We see that when it (History) is not made a compulsory-pass, many treat the subject as unimportant and they don't want to know our history, what happened in the past and will not appreciate what we have now," he said.

He was speaking to reporters after visiting Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Puteri Wilayah for the first session of SPM examinations, which begins today until December 6.

In 2010, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced that History would be a compulsory subject to pass for SPM starting 2013.

Muhyiddin, who is also Education Minister, said the move was the same as making Bahasa Malaysia a prerequisite to obtain the SPM certificate.

Idris said 470,395 candidates nationwide were sitting for the exam this year, at 3,616 examination centres and involving 139 subject papers.

He said 30,863 invigilators and 24,332 examiners were on duty.

In reply to the requirement of passing English starting 2016, Idris said students and teachers were being prepared by being provided with training and learning material. - Bernama