In the article from Sun2surf, Wednesday, 18 August 2010, title Think before abolishing UPSR and PMR, the

government proposed to abolish the UPSR and PMR examinations. From the other articles Dont scrap exams, there are several reasons given based on the proposal. The reasons are both examinations give a lot of stress. Some say that both examinations can go as it is of no consequence whether a student passes the examination or not as he still gets to go to secondary school. Based on the reasons given above, I totally disagree with the proposal to abolish UPSR and PMR to certain degree gauge the ability of a students potential and weakness. So those, from the examinations result, teachers can play their role to guide and help the weak students. Leaning session can be taught by teachers according to students learning abilities. Without the examination, students ability cannot be examined. Besides that, I think without both examinations, student will take it easy as there is likelihood they will be tested. In addition, students also will not concentrate in class or do their homework and may play truant. If both examinations were to be abolished, then students will have it smooth sailing till they reach form 5 for SPM examination. If the UPSR and PMR examinations are retained, at least the students have their own aim or target to study. Automatically, they will study hard to have good result for examination. Therefore, our former prime minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad also disagrees with the proposal to abolish UPSR and PMR examinations. Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad said that there was nothing wrong with the examinations. He also wrote in his blog, We need to study the kind of examination and improve it rather than simply abolishing examinations. I agree with him. I conclude that it is not having both examinations that are wrong. It is the kind of examinations which are wrong. I think the real problem lies with the examination as most of the students like to memorize answers rather than practice analytical thinking skills. Regarding to the stress those students will have if they have both examinations, this is an irrelevant reasons. For me, even though examinations will put some pressure,

nevertheless it expands the horizons of a students thinking power and ability while determining their strength and weakness. Some say that it does not matter a student passes both examinations or not as he still can go to school. From my experience, the UPSR as a ticket for the primary school students to continuous study in secondary school. While the PMR examination is the determiner as to whether to study in the Science or Arts stream. Besides that, the PMR examination as an assessment of the students abilities before they sit for the SPM examination. If the UPSR and PMR examination are abolished, students will have their school based examinations. I think that the results of the students only obtained from one school cannot be compared to another school. This is because of the different levels in each school. Moreover, there will be no coordination among the schools in Malaysia to assess the individual student abilities. Thus, it will be unfair, dishonest and biased. Other than that, I believe there will be shameful bribery or the teachers will manipulated their students mark to make sure their own school results are better than others. As a conclusion, I strongly suggest that the right move is not to abolish the UPSR and PMR, but to improve the quality of education and incorporate self-development studies into the exams to make it more practical. I believe this is the only way to overcome this dilemma, if the whole education system is not revamped completely. ( 600 words)