YOURSAY ‘It's incredible how students today can score straight 'A's.’

Shhh! SPM grade marks a government secret

Odin: You don't need to be very intelligent to tell that the passing marks are considered secret under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) because they are very low.

Obviously, the ‘A' pass in Malaysia is not an 'alpha' but an ‘ass', that is, ‘donkey'. Elsewhere, you have ‘A' for ‘Alpha', that is, ‘distinction'; ‘B' for ‘above-average pass'; ‘C' for ‘credit pass'; and ‘D' (donkey) for ‘fail'.

But the passing mark does not seem the only factor in the Malaysian education system that is hidden. If we recall, a recent report had it that Pemandu stated that it could not obtain pertinent details because they were protected under the OSA.

When you have been having asses as education ministers and all of whom have been wanting to look good, what else can you expect?

Republican: I have been a teacher for 53 years, a Kirkby-trained teacher, teaching English and English literature.

During my tenure with the government, teaching in national-type schools, I was also an examiner with the examination syndicate for the SPM English paper and a team leader for the SRP/PMR English Language exams.

You will be shocked to know that the pass mark for SPM English paper was a mere 08 o/o in 1987. It was not surprising to receive blank answer sheets for the SRP/PMR papers, especially from states like Kelantan, Terengganu and some other states.

There is no way that the standard of English has improved, not with the quality of teachers that we have today, especially with their attitude to the English Language

In my days in school, even if a single student scored three or four As, the head of school would declare a half-day holiday for the whole school. It's incredible how students today can score straight As.

Onlooker: Republican, your comments are supported by those of a friend who used to sit on the 'Moderation Board' for PMR results which adjusted grades as 'needed'.

Moderation in itself is not bad, especially when it is done with proper educational judgement and along correct educational guidelines. What is bad is the secrecy and the way the 'moderation' is being done in our local context.

In the foreign examinations with which I am most familiar, students are given their actual mark achieved in the exam as well as their moderated mark and then they are given their grade.

Nobody is actually give a 'Fail', but everyone knows the lowest grade means the student didn't achieve the minimum required standard.

Onyourtoes: With computerisation, we should record the grades of the students in actual marks scored and then grade them based on percentiles for each subject.

For example, student Ah Beng scoring 72 marks for mathematics is top 20 percent of all students taking this exam. Ah Q scoring 98 marks is top 1% of all students, et cetera.

With this system, not only actual marks are shown but also their overall standing based on national average. As far as I know, the United States has this system in their public exam more than 20 years ago.

Education Minister Muyhiddin Yassin said our system is better than US, UK and Germany, so we should have this system put in place.

Cascara: When I sat for my SPM 40 years ago, there was only one student in the whole country who scored all As. The best students in my class managed to score only 4 or 5As.

Yet most of them are high achievers today. Consultant doctors, engineers and successful architects. But of course, the exams we sat for were not MCQs (multiple choice questions) and papers were sent to Cambridge for correction.

Anonymous #07451242: Just spoke to a student who scored 9 A1s. Oh my God, she can't even speak half a sentence in proper English - a product of our education policy.

Kelate: I took my SPM in the late 1970s and was the best student in my school, a boarding school, that was ranked as having second best result in the state. Yet, I was not a straight As student.

There were probably less than 5 straight As students in the entire state then. Nowadays, straight As are in the kilos in every state.

This is like comparing the value of RM1 now with RM1 many years ago; they are being inflated few hundreds percent. Ridiculously insane.

Peacemaker: Of course it is a secret and must be kept in the dark where evil racist schemes can be hatched. That is how they ensure that mediocrity is rewarded with high grades and then plum university courses and scholarships.

These will return on graduation to make up the next generation of mediocre civil servants, so-called technocrats and experts. The result is Malaysia’s internationally-scorned and criticised bumbling performance in the MH370 saga.

Optimist: Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah, this is a very serious matter. There are too many stories from diverse sources on the shockingly low passing marks being used to graduate weak students.

At the end of the day, a couple of generations of children will become ill equipped to stand as equals in this globalised world. A change must take place now. Otherwise, the country is doomed.

Magnus: I did not know these examination results were under the OSA. Why should they be when they have nothing to do with national security? I hope Nurul gets her answer and then informs the rakyat what that is.

Mosquitobrain: MOE (Ministry of Education), if standard and passing marks are not lowered, how to roll out so many students scoring so many As every year.

Majority of the A scorers will be readily absorbed into local universities without merits thus depriving others good students the chance.

Those who can afford will leave for overseas. This is where all the rot starts. Where do you expect all those local fallouts or half-bakeds to go upon graduation, your guess is as good as mine.

It's a pity the authority has refused to admit this discrepancy.

Here are the reasons why exam grades top secret

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