Dr Annuar Rapaee said the proposed assessment examination would allow the ministry to identify and help schools in need of support. “If we don’t assess, these schools will stay the same. We won’t know how to improve these schools,” he told FMT.

“Either the school needs good teachers to be injected or to be brought in, or need more extra resources to be given to them.”

Annuar, who is state deputy education minister, said assessments should be about determining whether pupils had reached the expected milestones for their age.

The problem with the previous national Year 6 examination (Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah), was that schools ended up being ranked, he said.

“It encourages ceremonies announcing how many As and Bs, or something like that,” he said, adding that doing so created unnecessary pressure on the parents, students and the school to achieve good results.

However, Annuar said there should be another assessment, ideally around Year 3, to evaluate students’ abilities in reading, writing, and arithmetic. “There would still be time for us to mitigate or help students. (But) Primary Six…You’re going to Form 1 already. It’s a bit too late,” he said.

On Wednesday, Sarawak education minister Roland Sagah Wee Inn said the state is determined to develop its assessment examination for Year 6 pupils in all government schools, Borneo Post reported.

The assessment would resemble UPSR, which was abolished by the federal education ministry in 2021.