KUCHING: More emphasis should be placed on ensuring the gap between students in urban and rural schools is closed.
Minister of Welfare, Women and Family Development Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said more efforts should be made not only by teachers but also parents.
“The commitment and cooperation from parents in instilling the love for learning in children is equally important to provide a conducive learning environment that would narrow down the gap between urban and rural students,” she said during the announcement of the state-level Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) results by state education director Datu Abdillah Adam yesterday.
Fatimah noted that the gap between urban and rural schools is getting smaller.
“In addition, there is improvement in terms of scoring straight A’s and obtaining minimum Ds in all subjects in the rural area,” she said.
In terms of State Average Grade (GPN), this year’s PMR results saw a decrease from 2.70 last year to 2.68 this year for urban school candidates whereas the GPN for rural school candidates fell 0.07 from 3.05 last year to 2.98 this year.
“This is the last year to sit for PMR as from next year it is replaced by the secondary school-based assessment test (PBS).
“The new test will cover four core subjects namely Bahasa Melayu, English, Mathematics and Science where students will be evaluated based on their understanding and mastery of the subjects,” she said.
For other subjects such as History and Geography, students will be assessed based on their coursework and projects while they would also be required to perform in sports, co-curricular activities, psychometric tests and physical education.
“The new system will be holistic education which ensures that by the time the students leave school, they will have a balanced education.
“We want our school system to be the best not only in Malaysia but the whole region,” Fatimah said.