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PUTRAJAYA, March 5 — Education TV channel, DidikTV Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (DidikTV KPM), will continue as usual by targeting certain groups of students at certain times, even though face-to-face school sessions have since reopened, said Senior Education Minister Datuk Mohd Radzi Md Jidin.
He said the move was made in view of unpredictable situation of the Covid-19 pandemic, which could affect any decision of the Education Ministry (MOE), especially in the context of school sessions.
In this regard, he said when the school session is fully reopened, Education TV will continue to be used as one of teaching and learning (PdP) approaches in schools and at home, to provide space for students to gain access to education at any time.
“As we are moving forward, we do not know what the future holds (in terms of the Covid-19 situation). Say, if we do not create (Education TV such as DidikTV KPM), and suddenly another big wave (of Covid-19) occurs, people will ask where is DidikTV? Hence, we have taken this into account. If this (pandemic) is prolonged, we have DidikTV.
“We have students from various categories and that is why when this Education TV was created it serves as a platform for us, to ensure that we can target certain groups of students with certain methods, at a specific time.
“Once all primary school students start the school (face to face) session from next week, then Education TV will focus more on students in secondary schools, especially those sitting for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2021 and so on,” he said in an interview on “Malaysia Prihatin” Achievements of MOE.
Commenting on the proposal of some parties to cancel SPM for 2020, Radzi said the decision should not be made arbitrarily as it is one of the most important examinations in the country that is internationally recognised.
He stressed that any changes involving the SPM examination should be made in advance based on discussions with the relevant agencies, including the institution that accredited the examination.
“It cannot be changed all of a sudden because SPM is an internationally recognised examination. We know that SPM 2020 has been the most challenging in history — when the situation was highly unsuitable for us to sit for the examination and that was why we had to postpone it.
“…to give space to students to make adequate preparation, because they were under great pressure to study because they could not attend school as usual,” he said.
He also said to expedite the SPM 2020 marking and grading process due to the postponement of the examination, the MOE, through discussions with relevant parties, has increased the number of examiners to increase productivity in a shorter period.
The Examination Board has previously stated that the marking process of part of the examination main papers will be done online and not manually. — Bernama