PBS MORE HOLISTIC, SUITABLE FOR STUDENT DEVELOPMENT NEEDS - FADHLINA

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 (Bernama) -- The Education Ministry (MOE) will continue strengthening the School-Based Assessment (PBS) system, which replaced the Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) and Form Three Assessment (PT3), to ensure it is more holistic and suitable for the developmental needs of students in the future.

Minister Fadhlina Sidek said the public must understand that education is a dynamic and evolving process that reflects current needs, and examinations are no longer the sole mechanism to measure student achievement.

"Although continuous assessment is implemented through PBS, it does not mean cognitive assessments in examinations have been abolished.

"Instead, PBS incorporates the Final Test of the Academic Session (UASA) to measure the cognitive abilities of primary school students in Years 4, 5 and 6, as well as lower secondary students in Forms 1 to 3," she said while winding up the debate on the Supply Bill 2025 for the ministry in the Dewan Negara today.

She added that PBS allows for a more comprehensive and integrated assessment of student development, in line with the National Philosophy of Education (FPK) goals, which focus not only on intellectual aspects but also co-curricular, emotional, spiritual and social development.

At the same time, Fadhlina noted that MOE's efforts have taken into account parents' concerns, such as confusion over the use of Proficiency Level (TP) scores for UASA subjects.

"Starting this academic session, UASA achievement reports will be presented in grades and percentages to make it easier for parents to evaluate their child's summative assessment performance. These results will also be accessible online.

"However, UASA is not intended to determine whether students pass or fail or to compare their achievements. Instead, it serves as a mechanism to gauge their performance and identify areas for improvement," she explained.

Meanwhile, during the same winding-up session, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir said that his ministry is drafting a long-term higher education plan for 2025 to 2035.

"If education was previously viewed as a 'bundle', now we need to 'unbundle education', meaning we will explore its needs with a more creative and innovative approach to meet future challenges.

"Therefore, we will implement various human development programmes because we cannot focus only on Artificial Intelligence or technical development but also on the broader dimensions of education, which is human development," he said.

-- BERNAMA