There used to be a time when Primary 3 (P.3) students in Malaysia could advance to P.5 without going through P.4. In order to qualify for this ‘jump’, the Penilaian Tahap Satu (PTS) examination was introduced. My sister was among the first batch who benefited from this opportunity. She skipped a year, and never dropped an A in all public examinations since, including PMR, SPM and STPM. She’s now in Monash University under a scholarship. I personally know a few of her friends who had also skipped P.4 and went on to excel in their studies. I am sure there are many other gifted students who could perform just as well, if not better.

A few years later, the PTS examination was abolished, and every student must go through P.4. The brighter students - without doubt, there are many of them every year - could no longer ’skip’ a year of study. Why should we deprive them of this opportunity? It is obvious that we are shutting them out. Note that during my sister’s year, there were also parents who opted to play safe and decided not to let their children skip a year of study, although they passed the PTS examination. It had always been a matter of choice. You can choose not to skip, but you should not prevent others from skipping. My sister never had problems fitting in with her friends and classmates who were mostly a year older.

The only ‘disadvantage’ my sister had was being selected for National Service (NS) during Upper Six. A deferment was inevitable (and boy, trust me, the procedure as well as the way her case was handled was frustrating). But that’s not really a bad thing, isn’t it? That said, however, I’d like to lament the lack of recognition for PTS students who had done well throughout the years. It is a feat to have been able to skip a year of study, and proceed to excel in school thereafter. Because the PTS is no longer in place, many seem to have forgotten that there was such a thing before. Worse, as the PTS was only in existence for a short while, some people do not even know what it is. And let’s not even get to the NS trainee selection process - they totally forgot about PTS students.

In any case, the PTS would not have been introduced in the first place if the Education Ministry didn’t think it was a good idea. Surely they had their reasons for introducing the PTS back then. It is unfortunate that the PTS had to be discontinued. If I had the opportunity to skip P.4, I would have done it too. I agree that the ministry should revive the PTS. Let us not hold back bright students.

By the way, I found this picture in this week’s Star Education Cover Story:

Star Education Cover Story | Narrowband.org

Kind of ironic, don’t you think?

Signing off now,
A non-professional blogger. I think.

Edit@June 4th, 2007: Found a piece of related article dated November 17, 1996 via Jolene’s.

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