‘Kiasu’ parents, pupils fuelling exam leaks, say 2 Barisan parties
Demands from parents and students in the chase for straight As and those who fulfil such requests for money are the main causes for the current leak of UPSR Science and English exam papers that has affected nearly 500,000 pupils, say two Barisan Nasional (BN) parties.
Both MCA and Gerakan also pointed the finger at tuition centres which are cashing in on the demand by roping in teachers involved in preparing the questions to give tips or insights into "spotting questions" to pupils, which at times are too similar to the questions in the examination.
MCA education consultative committee deputy chief Chong Sin Woon said such corruption was shameful.
"Our society places so much importance on top scorers and students getting straight As, forgetting that they only form a small segment and that the majority are moderate students.
"This chase for As is creating a bad value in society. There must be something wrong with society that people do not see it as a crime or offence to buy or sell exam questions," he told The Malaysian Insider.
He said this was not the first time national exam papers had been leaked where students were required to retake the affected subjects, but pointed out the lack of action against the perpetrators.
"This has become so common and yet, why is no action taken against the culprits? I don't think it is difficult to trace them.”
Chong said parent chat and online groups were replete with chatter about exam questions and the costs involved in "buying" examination papers.
"We have often heard about tuition centres getting insights from teachers on 'spotting questions' but sometimes it’s so accurate that it raises doubts over the coincidence.”
The MCA Youth chief said the Education Ministry had to take stern action against the culprits who leaked exam papers, to set an example so that others would not do it again.
"They should publish the names of those involved in buying and selling of questions and this should also involve parents. We should name and shame them so that no one will dare do this again," he added.
Gerakan education bureau chief Lau Chin Hoon said the all-As mindset was inbuilt in the country's education system and society's psyche.
He said the overemphasis on the paper chase required a long-term remedy to address it, which would take at least 10 years to fix.
In the short term, he said, the ministry should have an audit to re-examine the current process, from the point the questions were produced and collated until they were distributed to pupils sitting for exams.
"The ministry should identity and rectify current weaknesses to prevent a recurrence of this."
The Education Ministry said Year 6 pupils would have to resit their UPSR English paper following another leak. The Year 6 pupils sat their English papers 1 and 2 yesterday.
There are 473,175 Year Six pupils sitting for the examination which was supposed to end yesterday. There are also 51,438 invigilators involved.
Education Minister II Datuk Idris Jusoh said those who sat the English paper with codes 014/1 and 014/2 would have to resit the papers at a date which will be announced later.
This is the second UPSR paper that has been leaked after the ministry said the Science paper, which the pupils were due to sit this morning, would be postponed to September 30 after it was also leaked.
Rumours of a leak in the Mathematics paper also were currently being investigated by the ministry. – September 12, 2014.
