KUCHING: Implementing the special assessment system for Year Six students would not conflict with the current federal education assessment system, according to Education, Innovation, and Talent Development Minister Datuk Seri Roland Sagah Wee Inn.
He said this after it was recently revealed that Year Six pupils in Sarawak will be assessed based on the state’s own system, which will be developed in place of the abolished Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR).
“Best believe we are currently working on the research, and we will be using our own allocation.
“And that is among the reasons why we are requesting for more education autonomy, as the purpose of it is for the benefits of the Sarawakians as well.
“Within the federal level, they might not want to collaborate with us, but we encourage them to look at the positive side of it all, because it is not conflicting with the federal policy. This is among the ways we want to improve our education system in Sarawak,” he said.
He said this during a press conference for the upcoming Premier Sarawak English and Bahasa Melayu Debate Challenge for Secondary School and Institutes of Higher Learning (HIC) Sarawak 2023 at Land Custody and Development Authority (LCDA) tower here today (Nov 2).
“I believe the system will give a much clearer picture on how far the ability and skills of the students are within the context of economic development that focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Technical, Vocational, Education and Training (TVET) programmes.
“We will work it out with relevant people and experts on this, to get their opinion so that we would implement this the rightest way possible,” he said.
When questioned if the assessment would mirror UPSR, Sagah reiterated that the approach depended on the input provided by the Sarawak Department of Education.
“Maybe yes, maybe no, it all depends on the input. Because we have not really seen how the assessment works, so the input from the Department of Education is really important in order for us to implement this properly,” he said.
