(Sept 28): The language papers under the revised Ujian Peperiksaan Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) will be split into two sections – comprehension and writing – in a bid to address language competencies among Year Six students.

According to Malaysian Examination Board director Datin Nawal Salleh, this would involve the Bahasa Malaysia, English, Tamil and Chinese languages.

She added this was in line with the standard curriculum for primary schools (KSSR) system in a bid to emphasise critical thinking skills.

Nawal, however, said that the UPSR examination would still be 100% based on written exams as in the past years.

Speaking to reporters in Putrajaya today, she said the new format was designed to evaluate the academic achievements of students across the country according to set standards.

Nawal also said that under the new format, the number of objective styled questions with multiple choice answers will be reduced and replaced with questions that require answers to be written out.

Earlier, news reports said that the new format will be similar to the assessment for Form Three students (PT3), where exam and school work are reviewed separately.

KSSR is said to be pupil-centric and focused on fun learning, critical and creative thinking, reasoning skills as well as communication, and information and communication technology literacy. – The Malaysian Insider