SUNGAI SIPUT: The Education Ministry is holding a special meeting in Putrajaya today to scrutinise and improve the standard operating procedure (SOP) in handling national examination papers, said Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
Muhyiddin, who is also education minister, said the meeting would be attended by the ministry’s
high-ranking officials and Malaysian Examination Board (MEB) members.
He said the meeting would look into the SOP at every stage of the handling of examination papers.
“A thorough look will be taken with respect to drafting and selection of questions, printing, transporting, storing and distribution of exam papers.
“We do not want to see a recurrence of any leakage. I understand how stressed the students, their parents and the invigilators are. Our aim is to strengthen the entire SOP.”
Muhyiddin said the security of more than 300 safety vaults nationwide, where examination papers were stored before being sent out to schools, would also be discussed.
“Normally, such a meeting is handled by MEB, but I have decided to chair it because I want to learn in depth the whole process and SOP related toexamination papers.
“At the moment, the questions for the two replacement papers are being drafted,” he said after closing the Sungai Siput Umno division meeting here yesterday.
A total of 473,715 UPSR candidatespupils in 8,384 schools nationwide will resit the 014/1 and 014/2 English papers, as well as as well as the 018, 028 and 038 Science papers after theythe papers were found to have been leaked. MEB has fixed Sept 30 as the new date for the resitstwo subjects.
When aAsked if more people have been suspended over the leaksfiasco, Muhyiddin said there were no new suspensions were made. Last Friday, he Muhyiddin announced that MEB director Dr Na’imah Ishak and her deputy (operations) deputy director Dr Wan Ilias Wan Salleh were suspended with immediate effect until investigations by the police, the ministryhis ministry and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission were over.
Muhyiddin also advised students and parents not to worry about the safety of the replacement papers, adding that the ministry would address the issues soon.