The Abolishment of UPSR: Wise or Unwise?

By Lee Xin Ying

On April 28th 2021, Senior Minister of the Ministry of Education (MoE), Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin announced that the UPSR will be abolished starting from this year. There are different opinions in the society on this move.

First up is a 12-year-old student from Melaka, Lee Xin Lin. She supported this decision as she will have less stress and more relaxed.

Xin Lin keeps learning and improving herself even after the abolishment of UPSR.

“Although UPSR has been cancelled, my homework was not reduced but increased indefinitely! My teachers have to source other materials for now since the government has not published a specific book for us to learn.”

Anyway, Xin Lin still attended on-line tuition to keep strengthening her weaker subjects.

Being a parent of two in Johor, Loh Mun San disagrees with MOE’s decision as she thinks that parents can’t gauge the level of knowledge possessed by their child.

Mun San doesn’t think that stress will affect her daughters’ studies for UPSR.

“Without this examination, children won’t know if they can cope with secondary school.”

Mun San mentioned that she sent her daughters to attend day-care classes as a way to learn more in-depth. As a mother, Mun San really thinks that the tuition can help her child to excel in their education, hence lessen the exam stress.

“Children won’t have the guts or mental preparation to face such a big exam without having UPSR first, that kind of mindset preparation starts early.”

Ling Meng expressed his dissatisfaction with UPSR’s abolishment due to the lack of mental preparation of students.

Another parent from Kuala Lumpur, Lee Ling Meng, 53, also disagrees with MOE’s decision.

“The child will not be mentally prepared if they don’t participate in public exams like UPSR but instead have to wait for a whole 17 years to participate in Malaysia's biggest exam, SPM unlike their peers from other countries.”

He also added that this decision was probably made by MoE in order to balance the overall results of the country as rural areas students tend to perform poorer than the urban students where parents are more particular about their education.

“This decision will just keep students from improving further as there will be no sense of accomplishment at all.”

He encourages children to balance their life between studies and social activities and stated the importance of time management skills to cope with their study. He usually encourage his children to watch TV programs to lessen their stress.

“Where there is stress, there is motivation,” said a retired teacher from Kuala Lumpur, Tay Boon Hong.

She disagrees with this decision by saying that stress is what keeps us going forward and not backwards. She also added that parents might want to pay extra attention to their child in order to keep up with their school.

However, she also added that people have to see the examination in the right mind, which is to increase their knowledge and not just plainly for the ranks and ‘A’s.

Students facing too much stress due to teacher’s over attention to UPSR (Photo taken from the New Straits Times)

She mentioned that some schools might go to the extent of cancelling their co-curriculum activities such as music and physical exercise just to focus more on UPSR.

“Schools should not sort out students according to grades as everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Schools should also focus on the true purpose of education, and not just be compelling to the UPSR.

Teachers should educate each and every student according to their needs and not the teacher’s wants.” said Tay.

She also hopes that this decision will make Malaysia become better and everyone will start to realise the true purpose of education.

Meanwhile, Jack Lee, 20, expresses his dissatisfaction of MoE’s decision as he thinks that this decision will make the students even more lenient and not know the importance of mind preparation.

Students having exams in the classroom (Photo taken by Bernama News)

“They will be too nervous to think of anything when the time comes, so better not cancel and start preparing early.”

He also suggested that ‘freestyling’ questions is better than just following the monotype answering style. “Students should not have too much stress as what they answer is what they have learned.”

He also stressed the importance of attitude towards the exam’s result as it does not define who you (the students) are, and you must keep up with the studious attitude even after secondary school.

The abolishment of UPSR has its own benefits such as broadening student’s horizons as well as disadvantages such as the lack of mental preparation for public exams. What do you think? Comment below and express your opinion aloud.