THE Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examinations began on Monday and lasts a week. It is compulsory for all schools designated as examination centres to provide an environment free of distraction and disturbances so that all candidates can focus on the exams.

But let's look at what happens in schools "in total" when the PMR exams are on (that is, five weeks before the year-end school holidays begin) and after.

On the Thursday before the PMR exams, schools prepare the classrooms and hall(s). On Friday, all external invigilators arrive to inspect the centres.

If a school has 10 Form Three classes each with 30 students, it has to allocate 15 classrooms since each room is allowed only a maximum of 20 candidates. An extra room is reserved for "quarantine" purposes. All in all, 16 classrooms are utilised.

Most schools will designate exam rooms in one or two separate blocks. Any extra classrooms in the blocks will not be used to avoid the "distractions and disturbances" other classes might cause during the exams.
If the school has a hall, a maximum of 120 candidates are allowed. So, in our example, a school still needs to provide 10 additional classrooms.

The Education Ministry also regulates that a school has to nominate teachers to act as invigilators in other examination centres. The number of teachers appointed equals the number of examination rooms a school uses.

In the above example, 16 teachers would have to be sent out. For the exam hall, the ratio of invigilator to students is one for every 20. This means no saving of manpower. In addition, a school has to nominate another teacher as chief invigilator in another centre.

With so many classrooms and teachers taken away (smaller schools suffer on a proportionate scale), it is a wonder how non-PMR classes can function in a conducive learning environment.

To circumvent the problem, some schools declare "unofficial" no-class days on a rotational basis for the affected classes. But the reality is these "rotation" classes are given a week off.

If a school insists that all students must be present, classes will be combined as there will be a shortage of teachers and rooms. Library, science laboratories, resource centres and computer labs are turned into temporary classrooms.

On the other hand, the school may decide to begin all its internal year-end exams to coincide with the start of the PMR exams. If well planned, these school exams may bring a certain amount of peace and quiet during the PMR exam week as all students will then be taking one exam or another.

The school exams will normally continue for an additional week after PMR. After that, there are still three weeks before the year-end school holidays begin.

What happens during these three weeks? Teachers will be very busy. They have to get all examination scripts marked and the report cards out before the term closes. They are also involved in year-end activities like collecting school fees, completing reports and overseeing return of loaned textbooks. Some have to attend PMR marking seminars/workshops that last days.

The ministry may also call teachers to attend any last-minute courses to use up any unutilised allocation.

The PMR students generally feel their study time is over and would go back to school for class "parties" or co-curricular activities, which are usually unsupervised. Most, however, prefer to stay away from school.

The Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia exam students will be on "study leave" of their own. If at all, they may come to school in small groups to seek help from certain subject teachers. The non-exam classes (Forms 1, 2 and 4) take the cue. They, too, will be in and out of school.

For many, getting their report cards before school closes is their last priority. After all, they know they will all be promoted to the next forms the following year. This seemingly uncontrolled school environment is a breeding ground for disciplinary problems.

It is not wrong to conclude that in most schools, normal school functions are thrown out of the window nearly one month before the school holidays begin mainly because the PMR exams, unlike the SPM exams, are held in mid-October.

The ministry's explanation is that it needs to separate the two exams because its computers and officials cannot comfortably handle the combined loads simultaneously.

On the other hand, the examiners for the PMR and the SPM exams are not the same set of teachers and therefore, there is no overlapping of work for these examiners.

The solution lies with the ministry. It is pertinent, therefore, that the ministry takes stock of the distractions and disturbances the mid-October PMR is causing to all other non-PMR classes.

It should seriously consider holding the next PMR exams during the year-end school holidays.