Bernama November 19, 2009 16:39 PM
PUTRAJAYA, Nov 19 (Bernama) — The education ministry’s first Aptitude Test for Year Six students during their UPSR exams has shown that only 5.7 per cent (29,084 students) out of 509,885 pupils are skilled at problem solving and decision making, and only 34.34 per cent (175,101) in skilled thinking.
Education Director-General Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom This said today that this indicated that the children needed more training on problem-solving and decision-making.
Speaking at a press conference here on Thursday, he explained that the Aptitude Test was divided into two dimensions, namely Skilled Thinking and Problem Solving and Decision-Making .
Alimuddin said a student’s aptitude level was then categorised from Band One (lowest skilled) to Band Four (highest skilled).
The test results have found that when it comes to problem solving and decision making, the majority of Year Six students which is 47.71 per cent (243,258 students) remained in Band Two, followed by 28.24 per cent (143,971 students) in Band Three and 18.35 per cent (93,572 students) in Band One.
On the other hand, the majority of Skilled Thinking students lies in Band Three at 41.04 per cent (209,244 students), followed by 20.71 per cent (105,580 students) in Band Two and 3.91 per cent (19,960) in Band One.
The test also categorised a student’s interest into Academic, Technical and Vocational, Arts, Sports and Culture and Society, ranking them from One (primary interest) to Five (least interest).
There is a 39.31 per cent high tendency of candidates towards the academic, followed by technical and vocational (29.25 per cent), arts (19.26 per cent), culture and social (9.72 per cent) and sport (2.57 per cent).
— BERNAMA