Facts Used by the Opposition Speakers

Speaker 1 : Siti Mardhiah Haji Azmir

The first point that was used by the speaker was the paper of UPSR will be marked by the
experienced teachers from all over the Malaysia. After the completion of all exams, the
examination papers will be brought to centres across the country to be evaluated. The
distributions of papers across all the states can be random or otherwise, according to the wishes
of invigilator. Therefore, there will be fair and no bias, as the invigilators will mark the paper
without knowing the students name and their learning potential. In this point she strongly
suggest that UPSR is still a valid and reliable examination because of the way it is being marks
accordingly as stated by the Ministry of Education. This is a known fact because by using this
you can ensure that the way of the papers that are being marked are legit and the identity of the
students. When asked the Education Ministry today insisted that its Education Blueprint is still
relevant despite the perceived reversal of several key policies that were supposed to have been
implemented by now.The ministrys Director-General Datuk Seri Dr Khair Mohamad Yusof
denied that they had reversed its policies under the Blueprint which include the eventual
abolition of the Primary School Evaluation Test (UPSR) stressing that they were only
delaying the implementation. (Malay Mail Online, 2015)
The second point that was mentioned by the speaker was that without examinations in
place, students would lack motivation to work hard and perform well in school. Without UPSR
and PMR, it would be pointless going to school. As with the argument about the rural-area
students, this appears to be a rather ancillary objection. The government has already made it clear
that there will be another form of assessment in place of UPSR and PMR, though the exact
details are still hazy as of now. Students will still be assessed in some way, even if more holistic
components will be incorporated into the assessment scheme, so there should not be an issue of a
lack of motivation. Lastly, it should be noted that many students who are not motivated to put
effort into their schoolwork are likely to have the same attitude regardless of the type of final
assessment anyway.

The last argument used by the speaker was UPSR can promote competitiveness among
the students. Healthy competition inspires the students to do their best. When the students
compete, they will become more inquisitive, research independently and learn to work with
others. They will strive to do more than is required. These abilities prepare the students for future
situations of all kinds. Whether it is applying to college or seeking a promotion, the ability to be
competitive will give them an important edge. Therefore, the nature of UPSR will create
competitiveness and challenges for students to obtain good grade for recognition and enhance
excellent result. According to Lyn Kendall, Gifted Child Consultant for British Mensa,
competition is good for children. It is quite normal for people to judge themselves against others,
thus in that respect competition is quite healthy. It can teach a student to accept failure without
losing self-esteem. Education and competition are two universal ingredients of all human
cultures, in fact, of almost all animal life. Humans have always considered education and
competition important issues, both in the past and in the present. Of course, there have been
fluctuations in emphasis and much has changed throughout the centuries. When you compete
with another student you have to work harder so all the students improves their knowledge so
there is a progress in the group of students. If there were not competition only the best of the
class will improve his knowledge.

Speaker 2 : Fatin Zainon

The first point that was used by then speaker was UPSR is still a relevant examination to
the students in Malaysia because that many efforts has been done in order to ensure the
Malaysian Educational blueprint is working. The speaker also said that UPSR is in the same
course in helping the blueprint to succeed. In September 2013, the Education Ministry launched
the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025, a document touted by then education minister Tan
Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as the most comprehensive and biggest manifestation of government
transformation in getting the best returns in human capital to drive all national development
aspirations. The speaker then suggested that we should stay on track with the blueprint in order
to finish what we have started. This is because the framework requires many years to be seen as
successful. The speaker also continues to support the statement by using Robert Gagne theory.
According to Robert Gagn (1985) there are nine events that provide a framework for an

effective learning process:Number 8 is to assess performance. In order to evaluate the

effectiveness of the instructional events, you must test to see if the expected learning outcomes
have been achieved. Performance should be based on previously stated objectives. It is to
evaluate the learners to determine if the lesson has been learned and provide general progress
information. It is alsoo show that they've learned the material or skill effectively.
The second point was the abolishment will cause the standard of students to drop further
from the present level. without examinations in place, students would lack motivation to work
hard and perform well in school. Without UPSR, it would be pointless going to school. Exam
really doesn't harm anyone but opens up brighter pathway for students to walk on. Many state
that exams should be abolished just because they are 'stressed' by studying. But seriously, no
individual on Earth never gets stressed in their life-time. Even though studying is stressful and
hard, people just have to accept the fact that what is hard and stressful right now will just end up
helping you at the end. Unless you are born in a such a wealthy family and don't have to earn any
money as you already have a 'future' given to you, you have to study very hard to achieve your
goals and gain knowledge.
The third point was questioning on how are we going to assess students achievement?
The abolishment of this examination would leave us with no objective method of assessing a
students academic performance in school. This means that certain academically-elite
secondary schools which typically depend on UPSR results for admission purposes would be left
without a way of deciding which students to admit. This will lead to difficulties because some of
the premium school are for high performing students, being able to separate them and help them
study in their own pace would help to them to develop their own potential. Without
examninations, it is also hard for the teachers to separate the high performing, the average and
the slow ones. With UPSR it will help schools prepare more suitable approach for different kinds
of students.

Speaker 3: Edwina Ivy Antonius

The third speaker started by mentioning how stress can actually helps the students with
the exams and their study. Stress is a highly unpleasant and even debilitating emotion that can
make us feel like things are getting too much for us, like the world is stacking up against us, and
like we can't cope. Stress is known to lower the immune system making us more likely to
become ill, it has been known to negatively affect our decision making abilities so that we make
bad judgment calls, and it is linked with many other unpleasant emotions such as depression and
anxiety. When we are in a situation where we are placed under pressure and need to concentrate,
then this is often when stress arises and it is of course in these scenarios more destructive than it
is helpful, leaving us unable to concentrate and causing us to stutter and choke. However every
emotion exists for a reason and of course we adapted to feel stress through evolution, so of
course it must offer some kind of benefit and indeed it is not without its positive points. In fact
sometimes focusing on the positive aspects of stress can be enough to help us turn stress around
and to make the most of it. First and foremost, stress is positive in that it can be a great
motivating force at times and this is partly probably why we developed stress in the first place. In
fact it's often easy to see how stress can be a useful motivating factor by looking at every day
examples. You may remember for instance being at school and revising for exams. Here some
people will have revised very hard and started very early and this was an important as a good
way to prepare for any exam. Other people however will have waited until the last night and then
crammed as quickly as possible to learn it all in a night or they may even have decided to skip
this phase and to just hope that they remembered enough from classes. Of course the people who
revised harder and longer were the ones who would have performed better in the exams and it
was of course this group who were the more effected by stress. If you're stressed then you go
about trying to rectify the problem, and you go about trying to prepare/plan/fix
The second point was the speaker insists that UPSR will not cause the students to lose
value. The point from the governments team was the students will be focusing too much on the
exams and they will lose their value as a students plus there will be no holistic achievement in
the students as they were too exam oriented. As the government demands on the use of SBA in
school the speaker then answered that SBA demands a lot more works and commitment from the
teachers. Teachers will be burdened with a lot of works because they are responsible to

determine and evaluate the students holistic progress as they have to develop their own tools of
assessments. To develop the tools of assessment, it is not something that can be done by anybody
because the teachers need to be trained and the training is not something that can be mastered in
three days courses, it must be supervised regularly. Plus a vast amount of researches in the
various countries signify the need for an on-going evaluation of the SBA. Similar to any other
innovations, the effectiveness of the SBA depend on a variety of variables, such as those
concerning the teachers and learners. We cannot assume that if the system is working in the other
countries, it will work on ours too because no size will fit all. Removing examinations will make
little or no difference if our education system doesnt encourage creativity, critical thinking and
innovation.
The third point was the speaker questioned are we ready to implement SBA? It cannot be
denied that examination questions should be oriented towards challenging a students analytical
skills instead of focusing on memorizing. Exams per se are not the problem. The problem is our
education system, the politicians, the Education Ministry officials, the academia, the teachers,
parents, and students themselves. But will abolishing UPSR and PMR help students overcome
stress? What criteria will there be to ensure that teachers are able to help their students to identify
their weaknesses? Are teachers competent enough to assess their students? What tools would
teachers use to ensure or maintain the national standard? Would teachers be fair, unbiased and
non-judgmental in their reporting of their students performance? Would the teachers be given
the training to assess their students and how soon would the training be conducted?