Four UPSR examination papers leaked. Over 470,000 students are paying the price and ordered to resit the English, Science, Mathematics and Tamil papers. That is the standard operating procedure (SOP) to ensure equity for leaked exam papers.

The decision made to resit was done so coolly; it disregarded one main component, which is the vulnerability of this age group who are only 12 years old. Before this, other leaked national examinations have been happening at the SPM and STPM levels. The SOP has always been resits, and that model has taken precedence as a counter measure to leaked examinations.

But this SOP has a flaw. It disregarded circumstances and failed to see the vulnerability of primary school children. It shows a lack of compassion on the part of the Education Ministry in not looking deeper into the effects, stress and unnecessary pressure forced onto these young minds.

After all, they will proceed to Form 1 regardless of their performance. Excellent results in UPSR will mainly benefit only some who are looking to go into boarding schools or controlled schools and classes. Even so, some of these schools have their own admission tests.

It is unacceptable to UPSR students and parents who have no choice, no say and are forced to accept the resitting of these four papers again due to the shortcomings of the Malaysian Examination Syndicate (MES) and the greed of certain people.  

We urge MES and the ministry to accept the UPSR papers that have been sat which are English, Mathematics and Tamil and have the student sit for only Science since the students have yet to sit for the paper.

However, this does not mean that we condone cheating by recommending that the resits be waived. We are more concerned that the emotional toll that comes along with resitting papers outweighs certain students gaining the upper hand. For the students who cheated, they will face difficulties in their studies later since they did not rely on their own effort.

For that matter, in any national examination, resits will also need to be evaluated for its effectiveness. Perpetrators should not get away easily because of the counter measures that take care of fairness for the test takers. Before this UPSR leak fiasco, no one has been arrested for breaching the MES SOP and no one has been held accountable for the oversight of the SOP.

Thankfully, it is with delight to see that swift action taken this time around, which led to the arrest of 14 people. This proves that MES, the ministry and the police are serious in handling such crimes. Well done.

It would be best if the MES and the ministry issue a statement on the steps taken to ensure that leaks will not happen for the upcoming national examinations, PT3, SPM and STPM.  This should give some confidence and peace of mind to students and parents.  

MES and the ministry must win back the trust of the parents. When it affects the future of their children, parents have long memories.