Ministry urged to reconsider decision on SPM timetable

Friday September 19, 2008

By KAREN CHAPMAN

Parents and students are asking the Education Ministry to reconsider its decision not to change the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) timetable.
Many wrote to The Star to complain about the timetable which they claimed gave students insufficient rest-time between papers.
On Nov 18, SPM candidates would be sitting for Additional Mathematics 1 from 8am to 10am, Additional Mathematics 2 (10.30 am to 1pm) and Moral Education 1 or Al-Quran and Al-Sunnah Education 1 (2pm to 4.30pm.)
The parents and students want the Moral Education 1 paper to be rescheduled to Nov 19.
Mother Chris Au appealed to the ministry to be more sensitive to the needs of the students.
"These students will be mentally exhausted and their hands will also be tired after writing for so long for the Additional Mathematics papers," she said.
Student Lisa Ho said she and her classmates had complained to their teacher after getting the timetable last month.
She said that students have to write a lot as they need to answer eight structured questions and two essay questions within two-and-a-half hours.
As a teacher and father, A. Lai said he thanked education director-general Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom for his suggestion that the Moral Education 1 and Al-Quran and Al-Sunnah Education 1 papers be held half-an-hour later than stated in the SPM timetable.
"Instead, I hope the ministry will issue a notification for the adjustment of dates for the Moral Education 1 paper.
"The chief invigilator at each examination centre can then inform the students and there would be no need for the papers to be reprinted," he said.
Lai said changing the paper to another day should not disrupt the flow of the timetable, he said, adding that students would benefit from the decision.
On Tuesday, Alimuddin said the Moral Education 1 and Al-Quran and Al-Sunnah Education 1 papers would now be held half-an-hour later.
He said the examination had to finish by 5pm as it would be dark in in rural areas in Sabah and Sarawak by then.
On why the Moral Education 1 paper could not be postponed to Nov 19, Alimuddin said this was because the examination dates had already been approved and the question papers printed.
There are a total of 141 question papers for the 110 subjects that would be be offered during the SPM, which will be held from Nov 11 to Dec 5.

TS