15,793 obtain straight As in SPM 2012

PUTRAJAYA: A total of 15,793 students obtained straight As in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2012 examination, a rise of 0.13 per cent compared to the 15,079 students in the previous year.

Director-General of Education Tan Sri Abd Ghafar Mahmud said 13,721 students were from the government schools, compared to only 12,970 students in 2011, while 2,072 candidates were from private schools compared to 2,109 the previous year.

“In addition, 481 candidates scored grade A+, which is the highest mark for all subjects that they sat for, with 431 candidates from the government schools and 43 from private schools,” he said.

When announcing the SPM results at his office, here today Abd Ghaffar said 488 candidates with special needs sat for the exam compared with 622 candidates last year, an increase of 27.5 per cent.

According to Abd Ghaffar, three candidates with impaired vision and two candidates with Attention Deficit Disorder and High Spectrum Autism achieved a minimum of A- in all the subjects.

“The success of the five special needs candidates shows that all students, despite their shortcomings, have equal oportunity to excel in the SPM,” he said.

There was a 0.04 point decline in the National Grade Point Average (GPN) bringing the number to 5.08 compared to 5.04 the previous year.

“The decline was due to an increase in the number of subjects that reported a drop in performance that exceeded the number of subjects that had reported improvements,” he said.

Although the number was not significant because it was below 0.05 points, Abd Ghafar said he had instructed a study to be done and improvements to be made in the future.

He said that based on the GPN, the achievements of candidates in urban areas dropped 0.16 point to 4.83 compared with 4.67 previously, while candidates in rural areas also saw a drop of 0.05 points to 5.44 points from 5.39 points last year.

The smaller drop in results of students in rural areas had created a big gap in achievements between the urban and rural candidates which is now 0.61 point compared to 0.71 point in 2011.

Abd Ghafar said based on the Subject Grade Point Average, the performance in 51 subjects improved while 54 subjects saw a drop and three subjects remained the same.

He added, two of the subjects that saw improvements were Mathematics which rose 0.30 point and Moral Studies with 0.21 point.

“Other core subjects namely English, Bahasa Melayu, Islamic Studies, History and Science however saw a drop in GPA,” he said.

According to Abd Ghafar, 229,009 or 51.1 per cent of the candidates who sat for 1119 English were sucessful in obtaining GCE O-Level.

For elective subjects, 49 out of 101 subjects improved including elective science subjects, additional mathematics, chemistry and biology that had a significant increase of 0.33 point.

Other technical elective subjects included Mechanical Engineering, Design, Engineering Technology and Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

In Kuala Terengganu, 19 out of 22,274 candidates scored straight A+ in all subjects they took.

Terengganu Education Deputy Director Hashim Mohd Zin said, the number of students scoring straight A’s increased to 513 compared to 408 the previous year.

“For special needs candidates, 17 out of 32 candidates obtained their SPM certificate with one candidate achieving an excellent 10A and 1B,” he said.

Meanwhile in Malacca, 409 candidates from government schools scored straight As, a drop from 2011 SPM that had 428 students.

Malacca Education Director, Kasim Mohamad said, 21 students scored straight A+ which was a drop from the 26 candidates recorded in 2011.

“One student achieved 11A+ and 10 others scored 10A+ and 9A+ while the state’s Grade Point Average (GPN) dropped 0.1 per cent to 5.01 compared to 4.91 the previous year,” he said.

The Principle of Accounting subject also showed a 0.10 increase and out of 78,612 candidates, 48,193 candidates or 61.3 per cent of them obtained LCCI certification from Education Development International (EDI), United Kingdom.

A total of 472,541 candidates registered for the SPM in 2012, an increase of 0.8 per cent compared to 468,808 in 2011 with 415,530 candidates from the government schools.

The SPM 2012 written exam was conducted from Nov 5 to Dec 6 last year at 3,590 exam centers, involving 30,239 invigilators and 22,930 examiners.

The Ministry of Education also hired foreign auditors including from Cambridge International Examinations (CIE), United Kingdom, National Institute for Educational Measurement (Cito), Netherlands and Education Development International (EDI), United Kingdom to ensure the examination received international accreditation.

Source : New Sabah Times