A total of 34,271 students (7.77 percent) out of 441,137 who sat for the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) or the Lower Secondary Assessment 2011 obtained Grade A in all subjects, compared to 30,863 (7.02 percent) students in 2010.

Education Department director-general Abd Ghafar Mahmud said this was an increase of 3,408 students (0.75 percent).

“This is the best achievement of PMR candidates in 17 subjects in four years based on the National Average Grade (GPN) of 2.71 points compared to 2.74 points in 2010, 2.78 points in 2009 and 2.83 points in 2008,” he said when announcing the PMR results in Putrajaya today.

He said the number of candidates who obtained Grade E in all subjects also went down to 346 (0.08 percent) this year from 386 (0.09 percent) in 2010.

Meanwhile, candidates who obtained minimum D (not including all A) also went up to 272,966 (61.88 percent) this year from 265,388 (60.39 per cent) in 2010.

Abd Ghafar said the achievements of rural candidates who garnered Grade A in all subjects also went up to 6,474 (4.28 percent) compared to 5,825 (3.81 percent) last year or an increase of 0.46 percent.

He also said the number of urban students who scored Grade A in all subjects rose 0.86 percent, from 24,084 students (8.86 percent) in 2010 to 26,189 (9.72 percent) this year.   

He said candidates receiving all E showed a downward trend of -0.01 percent for both categories, namely, from 249 (2010) to 216 (2011) for urban candidates and from 132 (2010) to 121 (2011) for rural candidates.

“The GPN value of urban candidates dropped 0.04 points compared to rural students, 0.03 points. But overall, the achievement of urban candidates was better than rural candidates,” he said.

- Bernama