Muhyiddin: Capping of SPM subjects to produce better students

(Bernama) KUALA LUMPUR: The limit on Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) subjects is aimed at producing well-rounded students, said Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

“We hope the capping will enable students to concentrate on the subjects taken and give them the opportunity to take part in co-curricular activities to sharpen their mind,” he told reporters after opening the Sixth World Chambers Congress and Smidex exhibition yesterday.

Commenting on dissenting views on the decision to limit SPM subjects to 10, Muhyiddin, who is also education minister, said the government was open to criticism.

“Although the decision has been announced, we have yet to implement it. There is still room for discussion.

“We have also received tremendous support, including from those in the education sector. They know that our aim is not to curb the students’ freedom in sitting for as many subjects as they want,” he said.

The decision will also benefit teachers as they could specialise as well as to alleviate the shortage of teachers, he said, adding that the education ministry was also concerned about the ill-effects on students who take too many overlapping subjects.

On the cabinet meeting, he said it had received a report from the higher education ministry on the confusion that arose out of a technical glitch in Universiti Sains Malaysia’s student intake for the 2009/2010 academic session.

The confusion occurred when USM had mistakenly listed 8,173 candidates on the website on May 29 as successful when actually the number should have been only 3,599.

Muhyiddin said while accepting the reasons for the glitch, he sympathised with the predicament faced by the affected students.

“Besides USM, the higher education ministry’s universities entrance management division (UPU) must own up and formally inform the students,” he added.