Azlan Othman
Following the COVID-19 pandemic which led to the closure of schools for 180 days, students from Years 1 to 11 have shown lower achievement in terms of competency than the Ministry of Education (MoE) was hoping for.
Immediately after the schools re-opened to primary classes in April 2022, the MoE conducted a learning survey to find out where the students were against the expected competency.
Three core subjects were used to measure the competency: English Language, Mathematics and Science.
Minister of Education Yang Berhormat Datin Seri Setia Dr Hajah Romaizah binti Haji Mohd Salleh said this at the 19th Legislative Council (LegCo) session yesterday in response to LegCo member Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Laila Setia Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Abdul Rahman bin Haji Ibrahim, who inquired about learning loss due to the pandemic, the way forward, and whether the MoE was far from achieving the target and the monitoring system used to measure impact of the pandemic.
The minister said, “The students’ achievements are lower than the results of the key performance indicator (KPI) that we collect annually, which led the MoE to review and change its priority.
“The highest recorded was Year 4 English Language at 34 per cent, whereas the KPI was 80 per cent.
“For GCE ‘O’ Level subjects, the MoE also analysed School Assessed Grades (SAG) assessments in 2021. The subjects most affected by the pandemic were Combined Science, Bahasa Melayu and Islamic Religious Knowledge (IRK), while subjects such as English Language, Biology, Chemistry, and Mathematics ‘D’ dropped by less than 10 per cent in terms of achievement.”
Meanwhile in 2020, she added, the competency rate for subjects like Biology, Chemistry and IRK increased, while Mathematics ‘D’, Bahasa Melayu, English Language, Combined Science and Physics saw less than a 10-per-cent drop.
“For GCE ‘A’ Level, a drastic drop was recorded in non-science subject such as Travel and Tourism, Usuluddin, Bahasa Melayu, Geography, Arts and Design and History.
“For subjects such as Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, there was a decline but not as bad as non–science subjects,” she said.
On STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) education, Yang Berhormat Datin Seri Setia Dr Hajah Romaizah said the ministry will review core, mandatory and elective subjects in the National Education System for the 21st Century (SPN21) and vowed to “add more subjects that widen the scope of STEAM education to act as a catalyst for nation building”.
