Starting from the 2019 academic year, students in Malaysian government schools will no longer be placed in classes according to their academic performance, stated a directive from the Ministry of Education.
The ministry’s director-general Dr Amin Senin called for the abolishment of practices that perpetuate the streaming system, such as the year one admission test. In doing so, the ministry hopes that students will get a holistic primary education.
“We want the pupils to be taught in a more holistic manner and to not have the focus be solely on education achievement alone,” Dr Senin said in an interview with New Straits Times. “To us, it is better for the pupils with mixed abilities to be put in the same class, so that they can help one another with their studies.”
Dr Senin asserts that such tests are “not the ministry’s policy”, and are part of efforts by schools to achieve the key performance indicator of a good school average grade.
However, this is expected to change with the newly-implemented Primary School Assessment Report (PPSR), which assesses year six students’ overall performance beyond academic achievement.
With the PPSR, students will also receive formal reports on non-academic factors, including participation in sports and extra-curricular activities, as well as classroom and psychometric assessments.
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