The school-based assessment – Sin Chew Daily

November 12, 2013

It has been a trend to have fully computerised school administration system and a series of complex computer system has actually been implemented in schools by the Education Ministry with an intention to improve education functionality and accelerate teaching efficiency.

However, contrary to expectations, the school-based assessment (PBS), which has been implemented for three years, and the E-Prestasi, which has just been introduced this year, have brought too many negative effects, over-burdening teachers and forcing the National Union of the Teaching Profession Malaysia (NUTP) to demand the government to abolish them.

The PBS has been severely criticised ever since it was implemented mainly because teachers are required to key in student achievement assessments and other complicated information through the online PBS, but there are always technical problems, including system paralysis, data disappearance, server congestion and system interruption.

The NUTP has continuously complained about these problems but before the problems are solved, the Education Ministry introduced the E-Prestasi two weeks ago, requiring school principals and deputy principals to summit teacher performance assessments. The E-Prestasi also requires complicated information and the NUTP actually describes it as another "bomb" of the education field, reflecting how much pressure the two system have brought to teachers.

The government introduced the PBS to primary schools nationwide in 2011 to evaluate student's learning ability based on 60% of public examination and 40% of PBS starting from 2016. In fact, the examination system reform can avoid students from becoming examination machines while preventing students' future from being determined by just a public examinationt.

Through student achievement assessments, teachers can also help students develop their intelligence and expertise in other areas, such as self-awareness, interpersonal skills, arts and cultural cultivation, to increase students' confidence. Therefore, from an educational sense, the PBS should be the direction that we must pursue.

The fastidious and demanding but inept Education Ministry should be blamed for the negative effects and drawbacks today. Since the government wishes to implement the computer system, it should then get the equipment and technical support well prepared before implementing the system. If it is unable to provide even a basic network system, how can it require teachers to complete the work before deadline?

The online operating system has become a nightmare for teachers, forcing them to spend more time on paperwork, while reducing the time spent on class preparation and teaching and directly, this has affected the effectiveness of teaching.

The essence of education should be letting teachers teach students professionally instead of making them sit in front of their computers all night just to key in information. The Education Ministry must resolve three problems, firstly to seriously address the overburdened system server problem as it is the main root problem; secondly to simplify the student achievement assessment form; and thirdly to allow appointment of school clerks to help handling the paperwork.

The various drawbacks of the PBS and the E-Prestasi have actually reflected the government's consistent attitude of lacking in detailed consideration and long-term planning. – mysinchew.com, November 12, 2013.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.