PUTRAJAYA: The 2018 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) results recorded a better National Average Grade (GPN) of 4.89 from 4.90 in 2017, said Education director-general Datuk Dr Amin Senin.
He said the improvement, though “small”, continued the positive trend which had been recorded since 2015.
A lower GPN indicates better performance.
Amin said 58.9 per cent, or 230,465 candidates, obtained at least a pass for all subjects they sat for, with 8,436 of them getting grade A+, A and A- for all subjects.
“The percentage of candidates who are eligible to be awarded the SPM certificate also increased by 1.2 per cent, where 86.4 per cent of the 391,641 candidates who sat for the examination last year are eligible to receive the certificate, from 85.2 per cent in 2017,” he added.
He said generally the achievement of the 2018 SPM candidates was better than in 2017 and with a narrower gap, of only 0.04, in the performance of urban and rural candidates.
Amin said a total of 296,673 candidates or 75.8 per cent were able to master two languages by obtaining at least a pass for the subjects Bahasa Melayu and English Language.
On candidates who failed in all subjects, he said this made up only 1.12 per cent of the total candidates.
Amin said the overall results showed that 61.1 per cent of the 2018 SPM candidates were able to master Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) subjects.
In the analysis, he said, it was found that 70.1 per cent of the candidates mastered the skills to evaluate, innovate (63.2 per cent), analyse (56.9 per cent) and apply (54.3 per cent).
“The thinking skills should always be nurtured in the candidates while in school and at home,” he said.
“Mastering of HOTS is important for the candidates to ascertain that they are able to face challenges and also to compete at international level.”
HOTS was introduced in the SPM examination in 2014 to test the candidates’ capability to apply knowledge in a new situation, to analyse, evaluate and innovate when answering their examination questions.
Amin said a total of 1,194 candidates with special needs sat for the 2018 SPM and 61.2 per cent of them were eligible to receive the SPM certificate. - Bernama