LETTER | I am an SPM 2020 candidate from SMK Hillcrest. Having schooled in Selangor, our trial exam has been halted because of the school closure due to the rising of Covid-19 cases.

Funnily though, they closed the schools when the cases were under 1,000, but now the number of cases is on the rise, with more than 4,000 cases reported on Jan 16, 2021, and the school sessions are continuing for the SPM 2020 candidates and thus it begs the question, are we resistant to Covid-19 or even ‘Covid-19 proof’?

It concerns me that we do not have much time to study for SPM, with most of us taking nine or more subjects for SPM. The time left is just two to three weeks to prepare, considering that the first two weeks when the school started are to be used for SPM trials.

Some of us do not even have the equipment for classes conducted or resources available online. We are delaying the studies of the lower forms if SPM 2020 get postponed again.

I am exhausted from learning online, I had good results previously, and now I am afraid that it will not be so for SPM because it is really difficult to study at home. The previous batches got the privilege to have face-to-face classes with teachers without having to worry that a pandemic hitting them. Plus, they got more time at school, since extra classes are conducted.

Teachers could intervene directly before, since they could see their students’ facial expression when they are teaching, but it is not the case now. Considering all the matters mentioned, I made some proposals to the Ministry of Education for how should SPM 2020 be conducted in a way that is fair for most of us and does not need too much money invested on it.

It caught to my attention on how the United Kingdom handled this issue, their GCSE is equivalent to our SPM, thus the proposals:

1. Continue the trials for states that have not finished or conducted it, and give the results to the students.

2. Next, teachers award candidates predicted grades based on the evidence they gathered. These predicted grades could be used as the actual grades for SPM 2020. The aforementioned evidence should be checked by the higher-ups to evade unfairness and prejudices.

3. If there are students who are not satisfied with their predicted grades, the particular student could proceed with SPM 2020 like usual (all or some subjects), thus making SPM optional and not mandatory for every candidate.

4. Expecting that the number of candidates who are dissatisfied with their grades is low, better social distancing could happen since we reduce the number of candidates taking the exam and possibly lower the rate of infection.

I am very sure that the teachers know their students better, hence it makes sense for the teachers to award students the grades themselves.

I am inspired on how the United Kingdom solved it, where Ofqual cancelled the Summer 2020’s GCSE and awarded the students their teachers’ predicted grades and the candidates who are not pleased with their result could sit for the next GCSE session, which was in November last year.

I would like also, to explain that the trial grades do not necessarily be taken directly as the predicted grades, since there are reports saying that some trial papers are much harder than others, though this should not be the issue since the Malaysian Examination Syndicate could moderate these trial papers. Though, I would say that these are isolated cases, as when the trial papers are drafted, they should have followed LPM’s specification of level of difficulty (referring to R:S:T ratio).

It would be a pleasure if for the media to follow up on this. I have also tweeted (in Malay) a thread on Twitter concerning these proposals on.