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UPSR exam is still on, tweets Idris Jusoh

Rumours circulating now that the entire Year Six UPSR exam is cancelled are untrue, Education Minister II Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh (pic) has tweeted.

He has denied rumours circulating on WhatsApp and social media this evening that the national primary school exam was off because of leaks in the Science and English papers.

The Examinations Syndicate also denied the rumours in a post on its website.

Social media was rife with criticism this evening after the ministry announced that the English papers 1 and 2, which pupils had already sat for this morning, were now cancelled because of leaks.

The English papers will be up for a retake on Sept 30.

Yesterday, the ministry annouced that the Science papers, due to be taken today, had also been leaked. Students will have to sit for the Science papers on September 30 as well.

The retake of the English papers, however, will not affect those from vernacular schools.

More than 470,000 Year 6 pupils are affected by the leaks in around 8,000 schools nationwide.

More than 50,000 exam invigilators are also involved, and Idris said that the papers have to be rescheduled to as late as September 30 in order to handle the massive logistics involved.

Idris had earlier promised to get to the bottom of the incident, saying the leaks of both exam papers were a serious matter.

"This never should have happened. We will conduct a thorough investigation into the matter and will take the harshest action possible against those who were responsible for the leaks," he had said.

He also announced that an independent committee would be set up to look into the recurring problem of examination paper leaks and advise the ministry on actions to be taken.

"Because of the seriousness of the matter, we will set up a committee, which will give us their advice on what steps to take to ensure this does not happen again," Idris said. – September 11, 2014.