KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 ― Some 113 schools across the country have reached good or excellent level in the Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi (KBAT) or Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) learning rating assessment.
Deputy Education Minister, Datuk P. Kamalanathan said the number made up 40.07 per cent of the total number while 169 schools or 59.93 per cent were below the good or excellent level, and these schools were being guided by the School Improvement Partners (SIP+) and School Improvement Specialist Coaches (SISC+).
However, he said, the performance and results of the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) 2016 could not be compared to that of previous years as the format and instruments for the UPSR last year were based on the Standard Curriculum for Primary Schools (KSSR).
Kamalanathan said 282 schools (one national primary school and one national secondary school for every 141 districts) have gone through the HOTS best practice rating assessment at school through their respective board of governors and quality assurance. Hence, the 2016 UPSR performance cannot be said to be up or down.
“The HOTS implementation assessment can only be done after the analysis of the 2017 UPSR results has been obtained and comparing the students performance based on quality, consistency, accuracy and fairness,” he said at the Dewan Rakyat sitting, here, today.
He was replying to a question from Nik Mohamad Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz (PAS-Pasir Mas) on the effects of the implementation of the HOTS policy in primary schools following the results of the 2016 UPSR.
Kamalanathan said inculcation of HOTS in the national education system using a comprehensive and systematic approach, covered seven elements, namely curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, co-curriculum, community and private sector support, resources and building capacity to make possessing higher order thinking skills a culture among teachers and pupils.
He said HOTS was incorporated into the school curriculum so that the pupils would not just memorise but have high-level thinking by acquiring skills to evaluate, apply, analyse and create.
He added that for pupils with writing and counting problems, the ministry had come up with the Literacy and Numeracy Screening (LINUS) programme to assist them and the results had been encouraging. ― Bernama
