Dates for PMR amended

The Star

PETALING JAYA: The Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examination will be held over two weeks in October.

Form Three students would sit for the examination from Oct 7 to 9, and from Oct 12 to 13.

Education director-general Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom said the dates for the PMR examination had already been amended once as the original schedule ended too near Deepavali, which would be celebrated on Oct 17.

“It cannot start from Monday (Oct 5) as it is too early,” he said.

The PMR examination which was split into two months last year – with papers in October and November, was later changed to one week in October following complaints from parents and students over the split in dates.

The dates for the other examinations, including the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah, would be from Sept 8 to 10, Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia from Oct 19 to 21, and Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) from Nov 19 to Dec 16.

On complaints by several Form Five students that they were unable to register for certain subjects in the SPM examination due to a clash in the timetable, Alimuddin advised them to write to Malaysian Examinations Syndicate (MES) director Datuk Dr Salbiah Ismail.

Petals, a Form Five student from Sekinchang, Selangor, had said in a letter to the editor, that he and his classmates who are from the Science stream wanted to take Basic Economics but were informed by their teacher that it would be held at the same time and date as the Biology paper.

He urged the MES to look into the matter, adding that since the SPM would only start in mid-November, there was still time to reshuffle the timetable.