English language paper to be broken into two grades starting 2016

Malaysian Examinations Board (MEB) director Datin Nawal Salleh said previously, the BI test for comprehension and assessment was combined as one grade and only the Bahasa Melayu (BM) paper had two grades.

"The move to separate the grades for BI comprehension and assessment test isin line with efforts to improve English proficiency among the students," she told a press conference on the 2016 UPSR examination format here, today.

With the break-up of the BI test paper, UPSR candidates for national schools (SK) would have six grades from next year compared to only five grades while candidates from national type (SJK) Chinese and Tamil schools would have eight grades instead of seven at present.

Currently, UPSR candidates in SK were given five grades based on BM (comprehension and assessment), BI; Mathematics and Science while SJK candidates were given seven grades based on BM (comprehension and evaluation); BI; Mathematics; Science and Chinese or Tamil language.

Nawal said starting next year, the UPSR papers for BM, BI, Chinese and Tamil for comprehension test would have questions in subjective and objective forms.

This was to test the candidates' knowledge and understanding of the system, skills in applying information and their creative skills and appreciation of the languages.

The MEB would also reduce objective questions and add multiple choice objective questions in line with efforts to cultivate elements of High Level Thinking Skills (KBAT).