Ministry's PBS system confuses teachers
By Jack Wong, Ipoh Teachers are still confused over the School-Based Assessment or Pentaksiran Berasaskan Sekolah (PBS) while students have become the victims. The idea of the PBS is good and there are successful examples abroad. However, why is it a problem for us? Even education officers and school heads are confused since the implementation of PBS, not to mention teachers and students. They wonder whether school examinations should be retained. Therefore, different practices can be found in different schools. Some have abolished the monthly tests and end-of-term examinations, some have retained internal end-of-term examinations while others retain the end-of-year examinations. The abolition of examinations is one thing but the bigger problem is the workload has been greatly increased due to inadequate training, vague instructions and burdensome paperwork. Under the PBS, teachers cannot concentrate on teaching and, as a result, they do things gingerly and are worried about the out...