YOURSAY | ‘Students must be educated and guided the right way.’

Suicidal tendency: UPSR, PT3 abolished to reduce students' academic stress

Drkam: Abolishing exams to address mental health and suicide issues oversimplifies the problem.

Mental health challenges stem from various factors like financial struggles, relationship conflicts, family issues, and experiences of violence or abuse.

The National Health and Morbidity Survey 2022 revealed troubling trends: 26.9 percent of teenagers experienced depression, up from 18.3 percent in 2017.

Suicidal ideation rose from 10 percent in 2017 to 13.1 percent in 2022, and suicide attempts increased from 6.9 percent to 9.5 percent.

Exams are necessary to gauge educational standards - without them, students risk entering secondary schools without basic literacy or numeracy.

While exams can cause anxiety for some, they remain a benchmark.

That said, a person’s worth isn’t defined by grades; we need better ways to assess learning and skills.

OMG: Stress is unavoidable. Scrapping exams is not the solution. Students must be educated and guided the right way.

Don’t confuse them by saying that God will be angry if you fail.

Instead, they must be encouraged to accept challenges and compete in the ever-changing environment.

Teachers must be properly trained to handle difficult situations faced by the students.

Is the education minister saying that parents, teachers and students during the last 50 years did not experience any form of stress?

Scrapping exams to avoid suicide is like doing away with motor vehicles where many people die or get maimed every day.

The country needs a far-sighted, intelligent and knowledgeable education minister.

Falcon: A classic statement from Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek. A day after the Higher Education Minister Zambry Abd Kadir boasted about meritocracy?

What is the truth? Never mind. So, now we know certain Malaysians cannot take stress as they will commit suicide?

So now we understand why there are so many preferential treatments, to keep them insulated from the world of competition - the real world!

Did you share this with your new friends from Afghanistan? No?

Fadhlina, you are wrong and misguided! No wonder our education system continues to deteriorate.

By the way, did you know students are doing extremely well in winning honours in Chinese schools? And they are not even Chinese!

Perhaps the education minister needs to go back to school.

VioletQuokka1493: How many suicides have been recorded as being due to stress brought about by school exams?

Stress in schools is something that exists all over the world. Students and parents should learn to cope.

Real-life situations are also stressful. Learn to cope with stress. That will prepare you for working life.

Now our students are so stress-free that when they are faced with stressful situations, they will become confused and anxious.

They did not learn to cope and thus failed to succeed in working life.

This is probably the reason why many graduates opt for jobs with little requirement for skills and knowledge.

Our education policy has failed to prepare our students for working life.

Worse, every government doubles down on a policy that is crippling our students’ lives.

The errors are staring in our faces but the government closes both eyes.

MarioT: Life does not come without stress. Abolishing the two assessment exams due to stress is a lame excuse for lethargy.

Those of us who had gone through the two exams during our school days did not have any issues whatsoever.

Our education system. These assessment exams are necessary to pave the way for streaming students into courses that will be best suited for them.

I would like to refer to Saudi Arabia’s introduction of Mandarin into its education system. This is a very wise move to well equip the student to face the labour market as trade and commerce with China is on the rise.

CH Y: Students will not be suicidal over Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah and Year Three Assessment exams, which, if implemented, will teach them to prepare themselves for crucial Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) where streaming and pathways into different options are determined.

Most students would be stressed and suicidal by SPM after sailing through 10 years without exams and then having SPM to determine their pathway in the 11th year.

Neutral Point: Well done lah Fadhlina.

Soon 99 percent of Gen Z are graduates and demand more highly paid jobs from the government.

Finally, we have to increase our foreign workers quota to 10 million to fill up the jobs that our young people are not willing to take up as they are all graduates.

They want to sit in the office instead.

Soon, Grab deliveries will be run by foreign workers. We will soon be like the Philippines where university graduates work as domestic helpers.

Allthebest: Are all our schools equipped and all our teachers trained in teaching based on enquiries, exploration, experience, contextual study, and assessments?

P Ramlee: Check with Singapore to see if they have similar suicide tendencies because they are keeping the Primary School Leaving Examination and other very tough examinations. Nowadays, our ministers seem very innovative in coming up with excuses.

RedRaven6070: No need to abolish exams. Just reduce the passing mark to 15 percent for an A grade. The feel-good factor will greatly reduce stress.

GoldenToucan7491: Why not scrap SPM as well? That will eradicate stress 100 percent amongst your students.

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