PUTRAJAYA, March 20 – A total of 13,970 candidates obtained grade A (excellence) in all the subjects they sat for in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination last year compared to 13,720 in 2012, an increase of 0.05 percent.
Education director-general Datuk Dr Khair Mohamad Yusof said the number of candidates from Education Ministry schools scoring Grade A in all subjects also increased from 11,648 in 2012 to 11,892 last year while that of non-government schools rose from 2,072 to 2,078.
A total of 405 candidates, including 366 from schools under the ministry scored Grade A+ (super distinction) in all the subjects, he told a news conference when announcing the analysis of the SPM results here today.
He said 442,588 candidates for the examination last year.
He said 883 of the candidates were students with special needs, including those having visual or hearing impairments.
Eight of them scored at least Grade A- (distinction) in all subjects, thus proving that all candidates regardless of their background have the opportunity to excel in the SPM, he added.
Khair said the overall performance of the candidates in 2013 was better that that of the previous year based on the National Average Grade (GPN).
“SPM 2013 candidates scored GPN of 4.93 points compared with 5.08 in 2012, an improvement of 0.15 points. A smaller GPN indicates better results,” he said.
“He said urban candidates also fared better by scoring GPN of 4.68 points in 2013 compared with 4.83 in 2013, an improvement of 0.15 points.
Khair said better results were registered in six of the seven core subjects, namely Bahasa Melayu, English Language, Islamic Studies, Moral Education,History and Science.
However, the Mathematics results declined by 0.08 point from GPN of 4.91 in 2012 to 4.99 points in 2013, he added.
For elective subjects, he said a better performance was recorded in 55 out of 101 subjects, including Additional Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Additional Science, and Applied Science.
He said starting last year, History was made a compulsory subject to pass in the SPM, apart from Bahasa Melayu.
“A total of 378,490 candidates from Education Ministry and non-ministry schools qualified for SPM 2013 certificates compared to 402,859 candidates in 2012,” he said.
Meanwhile, Khair said the ministry would continue to seek educational assessment from the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) of the United Kingdom, New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) and London Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) to ensure that the SPM qualification would continue to be recognised internationally.
“The educational assessment experts were very satisfied that the assessment instruments construction process, answer scripts markings and standards had been implemented a professional and credible manner,” he said.
Khair congratulated outstanding candidates and hoped they would continue with the culture of excellence and hoped the less successful ones to consider their failure as a challenge and opportunity to create another success in the future.
– BERNAMA
