The National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) today expressed support for a government proposal to abolish the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) and Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examinations to provide for a less examination-oriented education system.

However, the support was on condition that the Malaysian Examinations Board established a new mechanism to evaluate the performance of pupils and students, said NUTP president Hashim Adnan after chairing a meeting of the NUTP executive council in Kuala Lumpur.

He said the mechanism was important to assess the level of the education attained by the pupils and students, and to avert any loss of direction by them and the teachers.

"The board should also conduct monitoring to ensure that schools implement its instructions so that they do not stray from the curriculum so as to ensure the quality of teaching," he said.

Meanwhile, Hashim also said that the NUTP welcomed the policy of one sport for one student to ensure that students were more focused on the sport of their choice and excelled in that particular sport.

Give recognition to sport teachers

Hashim said sport teachers having certificates and skills to teach sport should be given recognition by the schools and given special allowances while the National Sports Council and state sports councils should hold courses and training for sport teachers to perfect their skills.

He also asked the Education Ministry and the Public Service Department to review the starting salary of teachers who had attended post-graduate teaching courses as it was not appropriate with the scope of their job compared to the salary of teachers graduating from the teacher training institutes.

"Some teachers who had attended the post-graduate courses, holding an accountancy degree for example, and teaching in pre-school have a high starting salary than teachers from the institutes but the responsibilities of the latter were heavier," he said.

"This does not only cause dissatisfaction among them but also delays their promotion while the post-graduate teachers move up the salary band faster although they were appointed at about the same time," he added.

- Bernama