Problems with PBS

With the Deputy PM Mahyuddin taking charge of the Ministry of Education, he wanted to do something change the system. He wanted to get rid of the PMR, Penilaian Menengah Rendah, to be aligned to that of UK, where the first public examination is the 'O Level'.

However, Malaysia is not UK, Malaysia is having issues on the distribution of students and many of the school are having problems with high students to teacher ratio. It isuncommon to have 42 students crammed in a classroom.

A news in a local paper 14 Feb 2014

 The PBS system has been in use for 3 years and it is still facing problem. According to NUTP, the national union of teaching profession, the main problem is inaccessibility of PBS data base. Despite the assurance of the Education Ministry, the problem still persist.

The Ministry wants to review the PBS following the complaints of the teachers.

Under PBS, the teacher grades the students based on 6 bands of spectrum, understand to exemplary, the highest. The system was introduced in 2011 with year one students and Form one students.

Some of the quoted problems face by the teachers are:

a. High volume of assessments - Example, a teacher can have 165 students under him. and each of the student has to be assessed individually for each class.

b. Another commented that the PBS makes hard work by the students unnecessary, as the PBS is based on the teachers assessments, and the assessments can be manipulated.