KUALA LUMPUR: Students are losing out under the new school-based assessment (PBS) system as many teachers are forced to skip topics, said the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP).
Its president Hashim Adnan said many teachers are concentrating only on certain topics that will be assessed under the system.
“For example, if there are 10 topics in History, but only five are assessed, some teachers take a shortcut and focus on the five to save time. In the end, the students lose out because they learn less.
“This happens because there is no communication between the Curriculum Development Division and the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate under the Education Ministry,” said Hashim, after a meeting with NUTP exco members at a hotel here yesterday.
He said the union was calling for a meeting to discuss how to improve the PBS system.
The PBS was introduced last year in primary schools, and this year in secondary schools.
It is a holistic form of assessment and incorporates both school and centralised assessment.
On another matter, the NUTP said the Perak Education Department's decision to organise a statewide gotong-royong during the school holidays on short notice was unprofessional.
“We understand that some teachers in Perak were only informed a day before that they were required to take part in the gotong-royong today and that attendance is compulsory,” said NUTP secretary-general Lok Yim Pheng.
“Teachers are currently on holiday, and some are in east Malaysia or overseas. It is not fair to compel them to attend a half-day event at such short notice,” she said.
