New grade of A+ for SPM
A new grading system for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) will be implemented from this year.
Education director-general Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom said the change would provide a detailed breakdown of excellent candidates who obtained grade As in the examination.
“The change means there will now be a new grade of A+. Previously, the highest grade possible in the SPM was 1A,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Under the present system, students are graded as 1A, 2A, 3B, 4B, 5C, 6C, 7D, 8E and 9G while the new grades would be from A+ to G (see chart).
Alimuddin said the change was based on feedback from various quarters that the existing system did not provide a more detailed breakdown of excellent students.
“The change in the grading system will enable more qualified candidates to be chosen for training programmes and new scholarships, such as the one announced by the Prime Minister recently,” he said.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said in June that a new category of Public Services Department scholarships would be introduced next year based purely on merit, regardless of race.
Alimuddin said the Cabinet approved the change in the grading system last month.
“This will not affect the examination at all as it only involves a change in the grades given,” he said.
He said school principals have been directed to explain the new grading system to students sitting for the SPM this year.
As it stands, the marking scheme for SPM subjects seems to make it so easy for students to score straight A's. With this new grading scheme, it seems that the authorities are more interested in adding feathers to the caps of mediocre students and to give them a false sense of security by allowing them to think that they are good - but only at national level because when they compete at the international level, they are not in the running at all.
And why so?
Because the SPM system DOES NOT encourage independent critical thinking at all. Students are taught to memorize, regurgitate and to meet standard requirements as tailored according to the so-called marking scheme.
An 'A' is an 'A'. How can there be A+??? Does it mean the achievement of the student is beyond 100%?
Instead of coming up with A+, should they not TIGHTEN the system so that the examination does not become a programmed machine that churns out "A's" without keeping a tab on standards?
Doesn't the range of grading show the "detailed breakdown of excellent candidates" by virtue of the fact that each paper should have a grading scheme and marking scheme?
With the high number of students achieving straight A's, this new move seems meaningless.
It would be easier to RAISE standards rather than to add a new grade which would cost a lot in terms of printing and other logistic requirements.
I wonder who the DG was referring to when he said that "the change was based on feedback from various quarters". Are these people from the education sector and actively involved in moderating SPM papers?
I cannot understand the rationale that the new grading scheme can enable more qualified candidates for scholarships when such a system means FEWER will be getting A+ whilst MANY will still be getting 1A and 2A.
Apart from that , it is about 1.5 months before the SPM exam begins. Don't you think this news will rattle the current cohort of SPM candidates and give them undue stress because of uncertainties instead of reinforcing a sense of confidence in the system that seems to have no system?
Other international examination systems have had A* grades for many years - since 1989 and my former colleagues have also lamented on how an A* is meaningless these days because standards have deteriorated and the calibre of students is certainly in a pathetic state of want not just in Malaysia, but also in many parts of the world.
So are we improving or worsening the state of affairs in the education system?
Think!!! Is this new grading system going to make a REAL difference in our system? If one is mediocre, slapping an A+ is meaningless and just a ploy to make people happy with a false sense of security with a "syiok sendiri sahaja" (satisfy oneself) reaction.
Please leave a comment if you wish, dear reader. Thanks!
Please leave a comment if you wish, dear reader. Thanks!
walla Can parents bunch together and award an F+ to the MOE for this latest snafu?
Their wanting to extend the grading scale until it spills out of the result slip must be because they were horrified to discover there have been too many A's and they didn't know what to do with them. Like, you know, baking a cake and seeing parts of it froth out of the rim and onto the pan...
Adding pluses and minuses won't confer the implication that standards have been met so that exceptional scorers needs to be recognized by extending the grades. In the first place the standards are suspect so how can any score be not in which case why this exercise?
There are serious disconnects in the school education system. For instance, children are taught english but any which way. And in some of the questions, it is just IQ testing, presumably for independent thinking, but without anchoring the requirement to any piece of knowledge.
So we are dishing out educated youngsters who can't talk clearly to the world besides not knowing what they will be saying. Even brokers have to know things properly and the context in which they can be applied.
Then there's the other thing of adding co-cu into the university admission criteria. Do they really know what's happening in co-cu's in schools?
Meanwhile you get teachers asking their students whether they understand what they have just said. Obviously no one will say no in which case the teacher rushes on to finish the lesson which in the first place requires one part to lead to the next. So if they don't understand the first part, how the last?
The best are the teachers who just ask their students to copy the questions from the guide book into their exercise books and then copy the answers from the blackboard into the same. What for?!
You would think it is another cover-up by trying to mess up even more what is already a big mess. Like, you know, repainting the contour until the water color smears out and runs to the edge of the paper so that what was intended to be a portrait of Mona Lisa ends up as one monstrosity in landscape.
As an ex-staff once said, anything the government touches....turns to ashes.
You should have stuck on to Bagan Pinang if only to be relieved from my lamentations.
If you're residenced in Penang, i would dearly like to have lunch with you and romerz one day when i'll be up there. Maybe nasi kandar if it's not already claimed by some other country?
;)