The Education Ministry today expressed satisfaction with the preparations by schools to enable pupils to resit tests tomorrow and on Oct 9 following a leak in several examination papers of this year's Primary School Achievement Test (UPSR).

Education director-general Datuk Dr Khair Mohamad Yusof said headmasters and teachers had prepared the venues for pupils to take the examinations.

"I have been informed that the headmasters and teachers also gave motivation and encouragement to the pupils with various programmes," he said after visiting five schools in the federal capital.

He expressed satisfaction with the preparations after visiting Sekolah Kebangsaan Jalan Bellamy, Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Jalan Davidson, Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil St Joseph, Sekolah Kebangsaan Sentul 1 and Sekolah Kebangsaan Taman Tun Dr Ismail (1).

A total of 472,853 pupils are taking the UPSR this year.

Tomorrow, UPSR pupils will resit the English 014/1 and 014/2 and the Science 018, 028 and 038 papers. On Oct 9, they will resit the Mathematics 015/1, 025/1, 035/1 papers and the Tamil 036 and 037 papers.

There had been a leak of the question papers for these test which the pupils sat for in the second week of September.

Khair said pupils whom he talked to appeared to be ready to sit for the repeat examination and expressed the hope that they would do even better.

Some pupils said that resitting the tests was a chance for them to do even better than the first time, he added.

Khair said candidates, parents and others should understand that the tests were repeated to maintain the credibility and integrity of the UPSR and that candidates could be proud as the results were honestly obtained.

He also said that the department had tightened its standard operating procedure on question paper management from the formulation process to printing, to storage and to distribution in the examination halls.

"We have also limited the number of people with access to the question papers to reduce the risk of anyone having a look at them," he said.

Khair also explained that candidates who did not sit for the repeat examination would be assumed to have been absent and would not get a result for that test.