Five students unjustly barred from UPSR

Parents expressed dissatisfaction after 5 of their children were stopped by the school authorities from sitting for the UPSR examinations held last month and hopes that the Education Ministry will give their children a chance to take the UPSR exams.

The parents of Zulidham Yusof, Abdul Zulhelmi Mizan, Zulfikar Mohd Fauzi, Mohd Fazli Mat Isa and Mohd Hakim Hassan, wants to ensure that their children’s UPSR results are not recorded as absent, which would then stain their children’s future, especially when they go to secondary school.

Mohd Fazli Mat Isa, 12, said his class teacher did not allow him and other friends to take the test for fear of tarnishing the school performance.

Fazli’s father, Md Isa Che Lah, 43, went straight to the District Education Office of Baling and Sik, when his son was told by the school that he need not attend school the entire week before the examinations, as no teacher nor headmaster provided a satisfactory answer. It is one thing to say that our children will not be able to pass the exam but another to deny them the opportunity to try.

Isa and the other parents hoped that the ministry will consider their application because it involves the future of their children.

“Our children have been in school from year one to year six. So, it is not fair that they are not allowed to sit for the UPSR examination”, he said.

“The other parents and I are upset because some groups are saying that our children intentionally did not take the test. They (unaffected parents) will only know our frustrations if this happened to their own children,” said a visibly upset Isa.

Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said, if it is proven that the five students were in fact forbid to sit for the UPSR examination, the ministry will ensure that they are given a chance to take the examination.

He also stressed, a thorough investigation would include interviews with the students.

The five year-six school children, from the same class claimed that the class teacher told them not to come for the UPSR examination as they would bring down the UPSR examination performance of the school.

Following the incident, UPSR certificate for the five students is said to be recorded as absent.