Implementation of School-Based Assessment (SBA) in Malaysian Primary Mathematics Curriculum: Issues and Challenges

Abstract

The latest curriculum reform in Malaysia sees the implementation of the Primary School Standard Curriculum (KSSR in Bahasa Malaysia) in stages starting with Year One pupils in 2011. The major change in this curriculum is that its assessment will be more holistic and less examination oriented for the pupils. Consequently, the School-Based Assessment (SBA) was officially introduced by the Malaysian Ministry of Education to evaluate pupils’ progress in line with the new KSSR curriculum. The rationales behind the implementation of SBA include the following: (1) to achieve the aspiration of the National Philosophy of Education toward developing pupils’ physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual abilities; (2) to reduce examination-oriented learning among pupils; (3) to evaluate pupils’ learning progress; and (4) to enhance teachers’ integrity in assessing, recording, and reporting of pupils’ learning. Under this new assessment approach, teachers are given greater responsibility to design quality assessments that align with their pupils’ learning outcomes. However, since its implementation in schools till now, various complaints, setback, issues, and challenges have been heard in particular among the KSSR teachers. A small-scale survey was carried out to identify the issues and problems faced by a sample of 150 KSSR primary mathematics teachers. Hence, based on document search and the small-scale study, this chapter will begin with a brief discussion on the implementation of the KSSR and SBA, particularly related to primary mathematics curriculum, followed with a report of the issues and challenges faced by teachers in implementing SBA in primary mathematics curriculum. Possible recommendations and resolution will be suggested at the end of chapter.