School-based assessment: Need to sort out the flaws first

I REFER to the discussions whether the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) and Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examinations should be abolished. In the event that they are abolished, school-based assessment or PBS will be implemented.

In fact, PBS has been implemented in schools over the past few years and it has been complementing the PMR and SPM examinations in the assessment of students.

As it is, PBS has failed to do its job well in assessing students. Not all students complete their school-based assessment in the form of projects and assignments. But teachers are told that no one should fail in their PBS.

So, some teachers call up the parents of these students, but these parents themselves are unable to get their children to complete the projects or assignments. As a last resort, the parents do the assignments for their children.

Other teachers haul up these students from their normal classes so that they can complete their projects. As a result, these students miss their lessons.

Some students don't complete their projects. They copy from others. Some plagiarise from books and the Internet. And some students are just not bothered. Whether the work is shoddy or late does not matter as long as they are able to go to the next form the following year.


But part of the blame has to go to the number of assignments and projects that a student has to do in a year. Each subject has its own quota of assignments to be done. So one can imagine the workload on the students if the UPSR and PMR examinations are abolished.

It is also a fallacy to claim that teachers will have it easier once PBS is implemented as they won't have to prepare students for examinations anymore. For the reasons I have just mentioned, I can only foresee the teachers' burden increasing manyfold.

The idea of school-based assessment is good but the implementation is fraught with problems. So, before implementing it, go to the ground and look into the problems faced by schools, students and teachers. Or you may get students who score distinctions in Science but don't know how to take a reading with the thermometer.