A study on the relevance of Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) among primary school students

Generally, UPSR is seen to be the medium to measure students' performances in primary schools. UPSR seems to be significant in the learning and teaching process among the primary level. However, UPSR currently is seen to bring difficulties rather than benefits. It is believe that UPSR burden students to focus on their studies and indirectly neglecting their social skills, soft skills and disciplines in life. Hence, the purpose of this study is to identify the advantages and disadvantages of UPSR as well as to stud) the effects of UPSR on the students if the UPSR exam is abolish from the educational system. The respondents of this stud) were four UPSR teachers and students’ parents of Sek. Keb. Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam. This research attempted to answer the research questions which were: 1) What are the advantages and disadvantages of UPSR to students?, 2) Does the change of UPSR format to PSR affect students’ achievements or progress in schools?, and 3) Does UPSR relevant to primary school students?. Datas were gathered, analyzed and the results were presented according to the thematic approaches. Summary of the findings and conclusion were also presented at the end of this study. Overall, the findings had answered all the research questions mentioned above. UPSR is seen to have both its advantages and disadvantages to students. One of the advantage is that UPSR is still the best medium to measure students’ performances, yet the disadvantage is the format ot the exam is lame and should be changed to suits current environment. Besides that, the changes of UPSR format to PSR would partly influenced students’ achivements in schools. And finally, the findings showed that UPSR is relevant to primary school students. To conclude, UPSR is still relevant to primary school students yet, adjusments should be made by the government to enhance the quality of the exam as well as the students.