He said the student shared with him the pressures of getting good grades for UPSR and wished he did not have to take the major exam.

Radzi said this student was worried he would disappoint his mother by not getting all As in the exam as he wasn’t smart enough.

“I was taken aback at this and my eyes welled up with tears. I told myself that this child was really under tremendous pressure.

“I advised him to be patient and do his best. I told him he still had a long way ahead of him,” he said in a Facebook post.

Radzi said he always reminded his team at the education ministry that every decision they made would not satisfy all parties but what was important was for these decisions to be made objectively.

When the UPSR exam was cancelled last year, he said the education ministry embarked on a holistic study on its necessity and considered the examination systems in countries like Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Scotland.

Radzi said the ministry held many engagement sessions involving 2,000 Year Six teachers, headmasters and parent-teacher associations (PIBG).

Yesterday, the education ministry announced it had cancelled the UPSR exam for good. The PT3 exam for Form 3 students for this year has also been scrapped.

In announcing the cancellations, Radzi said the ministry would introduce an alternative method to evaluate students supposed to sit for these two major examinations.

“No substitute exam will be held. Instead, we will strengthen the current evaluation methods.

“This will be a big change for the country’s education system.”