Overall performance of KL students shows slight decline

KUALA LUMPUR: The number of students in Kuala Lumpur with excellent results this year decreased by 1.88% with only 1,681 candidates compared to 2,108 last year.
Federal Territory Education director Datin Nawal Salleh said the state's average grade too declined by 0.05 point to 2.21 points registered this year from 2.16 last year.
In SELANGOR, there was a slight decline in the overall performance of the students who sat for the UPSR examination.
The state performance revealed a 0.4% low in State Average Grade (GPN) of 2.22 as compared to last year's 2.18.
State Education director Zainuren Mohd Nor said the re-sitting for the leaked papers – Science, English Paper 1 and 2, Maths Paper 1 and Tamil – did not significantly affect the students performance in the exam.
A total of 6,593 out of the 84,960 UPSR candidates scored straight As as compared with 7,914 candidates who scored straight As last year.
He added that the percentage of candidates who scored below the required minimum achievement (all D's or E's or a combination of both grades) decreased by 0.02% from 2.51% last year to 2.49% this year.
He said only four subjects saw an increase in the Average Subject Grade (GPMP), that is in English, written Tamil, Chinese and Malay (understanding).
Seven schools recorded 100% subject pass, namely SK Lembah Beringin; SMK Meru; SJKT Ladang Bukit Ijok; SJKC Moon Teck; SJKC Bukit Fraser; SK Kampung Busut Asli; and SJKC Nigel Gardner.
Zainuren said they were in the midst of outlining several strategies to improve students performance in UPSR exam next year.
In PERAK, Education director Mohd Idris Ramli said the leak was to be blamed for the drop in passes in rural schools and the drop in straight As in both rural and urban schools in state.
"From my personal view, I find that the pupils lost their focus on the examinations and the resit papers were more challenging for them," he said.
He said some of the indigenous students from the 28 orang asli schools in the state, failed to re-sit the papers.
A total of 1,165 pupils in rural schools scored straight As this year, compared to 1,351 in 2013, while in urban schools the number of straight As students dropped from 1,898 in 2013 to 1682 this year.
A total of 37,479 pupils sat for the examination of which 2,847 scored straight As while 24,434 scored the minimum grade C.
In PENANG, the number of students who scored straight As also dropped from 2,722 last year to 2,335 this year, said Penang Education Department deputy director Dr Sharifah Bee Aboo Bakar.
However, she said the number of those who obtained the minimum grade improved with 16,132 pupils compared with 15,996 last year.
In JOHOR, there was a drop of 1.12% in the number of candidates with straight As, to 4,811 this year from 5,533 last year.
In NEGRI SEMBILAN, 1,833 or 10.5% of the 17.510 UPSR candidates achieved the excellent score of 5As or 7As.
State Education deputy director Pkharuddin Ghazali said in terms of scoring all As, the gap between urban and rural students decreased from 4.4% to 3.5%.