PUTRAJAYA: A total of 10,109 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2022 candidates obtained excellent grades A+, A and A- results in all subjects, Education director-general Datuk Pkharuddin Ghazali said today.

In announcing the 2022 SPM examination results here, he said this year a better National Average Grade (GPN) score of 4.74 was recorded compared to 4.86 last year.

A lower GPN value indicates better candidate achievement.

"A total of 373,974 candidates sat for SPM 2022.

"In addition, 75,322 candidates obtained average results with at least a grade C for all subjects," he said.

Pkharuddin said a total of 342,742 or 91.6 per cent of the 2022 candidates were eligible to receive certificates compared to 88.1 per cent or 336,630 candidates last year.

"This is the best achievement since the certification requirement was introduced and for the first time, over 90 per cent would be awarded," he said adding that the requirement set in 2013 was that candidates must obtain at least a pass in Malay Language and History subjects.

Pkharuddin said the achievement gap between urban and rural areas had also narrowed by 0.03 points to 0.43 in 2022 compared to 0.46 in 2021.

"As for the GPN score according to school categories, there was a marked improvement in religious secondary schools as 5.71 was recorded compared to 6.10 in 2021.

"This is the first time that the public religious secondary school sector has achieved a GPN of below 6.0," he said, adding that the GPN score for state religious secondary schools in 2022 was 4.60 compared to 4.80 in the previous year.

When asked about the factors that have contributed to the improvement in the SPM 2022 results, Pkharuddin said the candidates were more prepared with the Standard Secondary School Curriculum (KSSM) introduced by the Ministry of Education (MoE).

"This is the second year of the new KSSM format, so the teachers and students would probably have the past year's references to be better prepared.

"The improvement in the SPM 2022 results can also be linked to History as a core subject which recorded an improved performance," he said.

Beginning with SPM 2021 examination, all subjects tested are based on the KSSM that was introduced in 2017.

Through the new format, the MoE also included the results of students' oral skills achievement through Speaking and Listening Tests for Malay Language and English Language subjects.

-- BERNAMA