It finally happened. The Ministry of Education Malaysia has finally announced the cancellation of PT3 exams but let’s face it – most teachers and students saw this coming after the abolishment of UPSR for final year primary school students. It is a bold move and it is a decision that is aligned with the Ministry’s vision in the Malaysian Education Blueprint to decentralize the education system, and the tipping point in this is the decentralization of assessments. However, Dr Radzi Jidin’s announced spells the perfect irony – the cancellation of the exams is met with a Centralized Question Bank. This does not add up. How can the cancellation of centralized exams to the establishment of a centralized question bank indicate decentralization? So, this article will highlight the unintended consequences on a surface level of this policy reform.

The intensification of private tutoring

The abolishment of exams are meant to see the reduction of competitiveness in education systems, which implicitly reduces the need of private tutors. Nonetheless, private tuition centers have been inseparable from national schooling due to the pervasiveness of exams in the education system. These private centers market themselves based on preparing students for final year exams. As such, these private centers have constantly paraded themselves as increasing student achievement. This billboard of an online tuition is an example:

With UPSR (final exam for final year primary school students before entering secondary schools) and PT3 (final exam for lower secondary students before entering upper secondary schooling) cancelled, and all focus on SPM (final of upper secondary schooling), there is a likelihood private tutoring centered on SPM will intensify. Private tutoring will likely leverage on the idea that schools are placing less emphasis on academic, subsequently students are likely to perform poorly in SPM. Fueled by social media, there is a greater inclination for private tutors to market themselves as academic-oriented programs to prepare students for exams and beyond. With one’s destiny hanging on SPM, private tutoring is likely to increase in the coming years, particularly online models such as PTTI Education and MC Plus. Also, we are likely to see private tutoring companies having a techno-solutionist approach in the delivery of education. One such example is GuruLab, that mentions the use learning analytic tools to increase student achievement in English language learning.

The erosion teacher professional identity

Without a doubt, teaching as a professional occupation has always been on the assault. When Malaysia was deep in the pandemic, teachers were blamed for not delivering meaningful online lessons. Some online users even commented that teachers’ salary should be deducted. While the abolishment of exams are likely to promote a more holistic education, teachers are already made victim of the proposed School-based Assessment (PBS). There are already parties stating teachers are poorly grading the students due to favoritism and not open to changes. Interestingly, while these parties are complaining teachers’ abilities to grade, many teachers have also voiced their concerns on social media that they are forced to give a certain score for students or risk being reprimanded by the district and state education departments. Moving on, it is necessary for the ministry to focus on how to equip teachers to build meaningful intervention programs and methods to build question items for their students. Both will have a positive learning outcome for teachers, which inadvertently impact their students’ learning experience.

The emergence of credentialing

With the cancellation of exams, Tiger parents (parents who are highly invested in their children’s success) will look at new ways to validate their children’s success. What will eventually play out is international organizations or education corporations will provide certifications as a way to validate children’s progress (see TOEFL Junior, Cambridge English Qualifications). While such certification programs already exist, the abolishment of exams will see the intensification of such programs. Nonetheless, it must be ascertained that high stakes exams create more problems and exclude a large portion of students to meaningfully participate in mainstream schooling. The current School Based Assessment (PBS) system is considered to be an inclusive mechanism that also include classroom-based assessment (PBD), psychometric test (PPsi) and co-curriculum involvement (PAJSK). While such mechanism is seen to be holistic, there is a high chance that international educational organizations will design programs for students to certify learning. Tiger parents who would want to equip their children to be highly competitive would take advantage of this. This will create more inequalities and students with lack of resources are likely to fall behind. Thus, in order to move forward, there needs to be some form of regulation by the ministry in ensuring lifelong and holistic learning is at the center of education.