PUTRAJAYA: Flood victims who have had their academic certificates lost or ruined will be exempted from paying the certificate replacement fees.
Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said the ministry has agreed to waive the academic certificate replacement fees for those affected by the floods.
“Those who have lost their academic certificates or have those documents damaged by the floods can have them replaced (at the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate), free of charge.
“The applicants, however, must submit evidence that their certificates are missing or damaged due to flooding,” he said after attending the ministry’s Integrity Day on Tuesday.
The fees to replace Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) certificate is RM30 and for Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM), it is RM50.
Applicants who want to replace their academic certificates will have to fill up a form which is available at the Malaysian Examination Syndicate’s website and bring along their identification cards for verification purposes.
On another issue, Mahdzir said parents who were not satisfied with the SPM’s questions can refer to their respective state education department.
Mahdzir was referring to a letter by a parent who was upset with one of the questions in SPM English Paper 1, which the writer said was confusing and could be misinterpreted by the students.
The question reads: “If you had the opportunity to move to another part of Malaysia, where would you choose to live? Explain your choice.”
The parent claimed that the phrase “another part of Malaysia” was confusing as the students may understood it as staying in other countries besides Malaysia, when it actually meant a place within Malaysia.
The letter, which was sent to an English daily, has since gone viral on social media platforms and received various reactions from the netizens.
Mahdzir said the ministry has yet to receive the complaint.
“We have a panel of evaluators to assess the questions for every subject in SPM. This means that all SPM examination papers have gone through a thorough assessment.
“If the parents were unhappy with the questions, they can go to the state education department and refer to the officers from the examination unit,” he said.