As students re-sit their English and Science papers today after the series of embarrassing leaks during the on-going Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR), a new way of handling exam papers had been put in place.
Here’s how it works: the chief invigilator would send the papers to the principals’s office for safekeeping immediately after the papers arrive at the school. It is then locked in a cupboard until exam time.
According to Education Ministry director-general Dr Khair Mohamad Yusof, this method is ‘stricter’.
“The stricter measures are to ensure that the credibility of the exam and confidence of the people towards the exam is maintained,” he was quoted as saying in a New Straits Times report.
Today, over 473,000 pupils from more than 8,000 schools will retake their Science and English papers which were found to have been compromised during the original exam dates three weeks ago.
Investigations revealed that two more exam papers – Tamil language and Mathematics – were also leaked.
Quoted by the daily, Khir expressed his satisfaction with the way schools have prepared for the exams and said he was confident that it would go on smoothly.
He added that student must retake the exam of be graded as ’T’, which stands for ‘Tidak Hadir’ (absent).
The UPSR is a public examination for pupils in primary school.
