LETTER | Students are not ready to sit for the SPM and STPM exams

LETTER | All of us have attended schools. In addition to academic studies, we had club and society meetings. We also took part in sports and had various extracurricular activities throughout the week.

Practical sessions like the science lab and vocational training workshops were in use. Most of all the interaction with our classmates took place during and after school.

After school, we had tuition classes to attend. Towards the exam period, we had revision and motivation seminars giving us tips and spot questions, which prepared us for major exams such as SPM and STPM.

But as of 2020, all that has changed. The coming of the 'new norm'. Since March 2020, schoolchildren have not attended school on a regular basis. Instead, classes were held online or for students without WiFi or computers, the teachers would Whatsapp the homework through the handphone.

All forms of physical activities came to an abrupt end. Children could no longer use the science laboratory or the vocational workshops. For the most part of the year, the physical school and all the activities were suspended. The children could not interact with their classmates. Children are now more to using their handphones to keep in touch with their classmates. They play online games till the early hours of the morning.

Parents have to assume the role of waking up their children in time for the online classes, making sure they do and complete their homework and assignments and submit them. This new role has its challenge in that parents may not be knowledgeable about the various subjects taught. Most parents find it a challenge in getting the children out of bed in time for the online classes.

There are a number of issues that remain unsettled. The first being children from poor backgrounds having no access to the internet are left out of online classes.

Take for example a family with five children living in the low-cost flats. The teachers in the school communicate through WhatsApp, providing the homework. That's all and there is no face to face interaction or classes. Submission of assignments and homework is another issue. All the children from this group will sit for public exams like the SPM and STPM.

The SPM and STPM examinations are around the corner. It appears that our education system is so rigid that no one has taken notice of the difference in the situation between the old norm and the new norm.

Children in the new norm will be sitting for major exams such as SPM and STPM after having attended mostly online classes. To think that all of us sat for similar exams after having attended physical classes most of our lives. This appears so unreasonable and absurd!

Two major exams have been abolished

On paper, it may be shown that the teachers may have covered the syllabus, but in reality, it may lack quality and in-depth knowledge. How then, will the papers be marked? The fact that the students in the new norm will be taking the same exams as the children in the old norm who have had practical laboratory sessions and interaction in school.

Two major exams have been abolished, that is the UPSR and the PT3. But the SPM and the STPM have been retained. The new norm has created anxiety among parents and students as to how, with the absence of physical classes, that the children are required to sit for such major exams. One way to deal with the issue is to alter the exam format to being assignment-based. Then, children from both poor backgrounds with other children can have a fair sitting.

I personally feel that in this new norm education system, with the large imbalance of those who have internet access and the poor children who without it, appears to me to be a breach of fairness to innocent children and one that has to be addressed immediately. Students are not ready to sit for the SPM and STPM examinations!

JAMES NAYAGAM, a former Suhakam commissioner, is chairperson of Suriana Welfare Society Malaysia, which promotes and protects the rights of children.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.