Give it a chance, Malay students group tells critics of new Form 3 exam

Unlike the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) for Form 3 students, questions under PT3 are subjective. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, December 24, 2014.

A Malay student group has come out in defence of the Form Three Assessment (PT3) amid criticism  from teachers, parents and students over the results announced on Monday.

The Peninsular Malaysia Malay Students Front (GPMS) said PT3 was potentially a good system that would assess the students' level of thinking and improve the performance of Malaysian students.

GPSM information chief Mohd Adib Anas Md Noor said based on his own experience as a teacher at the International School of Kuala Lumpur, PT3 was almost similar to the way international school students were taught and tested.

He said international schools, such as those using the American syllabus, had long been teaching students by getting them to think out of the box, instead of solely relying on textbooks and classroom lesson.

The result was that international students performed better than their peers in Malaysian schools, he said.

"The first batch of students to go through PT3 may feel like they are lab rats and people in the first group are always the unlucky ones, but we have to start somewhere.

"Teachers, parents and students should not point the finger at the Education Ministry so fast just because their results have declined at their schools. We have to take this new approach as a positive step towards training students to think out of the box," Adib told reporters today.

PT3, which has a special purpose to equip students with thinking skills, replaces the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) exams for the first time this year.

Since the results were announced, many have spoken out against the new assessment system.

Among the complaints were that students had only three months to prepare for the assessment and were unsure how or what to be ready for.

There were also parents claiming their children were given different exam formats just a week before the assessment.

There have also been reports of teachers being frustrated by data entry problems, with some blaming the faulty computer system to record the assessments on their students.

Adib said there would be teething problems for PT3.

"It was like this in the past when PMR and SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia) were introduced.

"You cannot measure the effectiveness of a new approach just after it is used once. We need to go through it for five years at least to know if it really works."

He said most of the complaints had come from top performing schools like the science and boarding schools.

"These schools are unhappy because their results are not so good now. They may have very good students but the kids there may still be more dependent on textbook answers.

"The other regular secondary schools are more okay with PT3. They are even praising it. Maybe it is because they are staying in a more open and freer environment that encourages them to think creatively," he said.

Adib said under PT3, there were no longer rigidly set answer schemes.

"Teachers sat in meetings to discuss the answers that could be accepted. They are not looking for cliched answers anymore. This means kids who depend on textbooks would find PT3 tougher.

"Students now have to look for knowledge and information from other sources like the Internet. Their parents must also change the way they get their kids to study. They must get them to also read newspapers to know and understand current issues."

Adib agreed that the implementation of PT3 should be improved so teachers, parents and students could be better prepared.

He said GPMS was collecting feedback and proposals on the new system.

"Whoever has comments about PT3 and proposals on how to make it better can email us. The address is pt3gpms@gmail.com.

"We will collect the emails for a month, go through them and send a memorandum based on what the public are saying to Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. We volunteer ourselves as the middle men," he said.

- TMI