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KUALA LUMPUR: 92.55 per cent of 48,466 students who sat for the Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) examination last year passed the exam compared with 92.24% of 46,306 students last year.
Chairman of the Malaysian Examinations Council, Prof Tan Sri Dr Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, said of the total 4,316 candidates or 8.24% passed in five subjects while students who passed in four subjects numbered 20,670 candidates (39.49%).
“Besides that, 9,797 candidates (18.72%) passed in three subjects, 7,412 (14.16%) passed in two subjects while 6,251 candidates (11.94%) passed in one subject,” he said while announcing the results of the 2009 STPM examination results here Thursday.
Also present were Director-General of Education, Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom, and the chief executive of the Malaysian Examinations Council, Omar Abu Bakar.
The overall total percentage of government schools’, private schools’ and private candidates who passed in five and four subjects increased to 47.73% compared with 44.09% in 2008, he said.
A total of 23 subjects comprising 56 question papers were offered in the 2009 STPM exam but candidates were allowed to take five subjects including the General Paper, he said.
Most students, however, took four subjects as the Ministry of Higher Education had said that only four subjects would be taken into consideration, namely the General Paper and three other subjects, for the purpose of entry into public institutions of higher education, he said.
According to him, only 13,205 candidates (25.23%) took five subjects.
On the students’ performance, 15 candidates got As in five subjects compared with 13 in 2008 and of that number, six were in the science stream and nine in the arts stream, he said.
Speaking to reporters later, Dzulkifli said the Malaysian Examinations Council will continue to allow candidates to use English or Bahasa Malaysia in the STPM examination.
Besides that, he said the divide between the performance of urban and rural candidates was wide, whereby 12.14% of urban candidates got 5As, 4As and 3As compared with 7.06% in rural areas. — Bernama
