PUTRAJAYA, Dec 8 — The performance of Malaysian students in the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) regional assessment has remained stable with both the reading and mathematics domains recording scores above the regional average, despite recording a slight decline compared to the first round of assessments.
Education Ministry (MOE) director-general Mohd Azam Ahmad said that for the reading domain, Malaysia recorded scores above the regional average of 300 points despite a slight decline of five points from the SEA-PLM 2019 assessment.
He said the same was recorded in the mathematics domain when the country’s score once again exceeded the regional average of 305 points, with a slight decline of five points.
“This means that overall, Malaysian students are at a competitive reading literacy level despite facing learning disruptions.
“This shows that the numeracy foundation of Malaysian students is still relatively strong, despite various challenges in learning recovery,” he said when presenting SEA-PLM 2024 results here today.
He said the cohort participating in SEA-PLM 2024 were students born in 2013, and described the cohort as unique because the students underwent home-based teaching and learning (PdPR) for almost two years while in Standard 1 and 2, which was during the 2020-2021 movement control order (MCO).
“Learning disruptions at the start of this school phase were a major factor affecting their mastery of basic skills and are an important context for interpreting the SEA-PLM findings accurately,” he said.
Azam said the trend helped the MOE design more targeted interventions to ensure students not only recovered but were able to improve their mathematics skills.
The SEA-PLM, which is conducted in Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil, is a regional assessment organised by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), involving seven Asean countries including Timor-Leste.
SEA-PLM 2024 has assessed the achievements of 4,379 students from 158 Standard 5 students in four main domains, but for the 2024 round, the findings only involve the reading and mathematics domains.
Reviewing the achievements according to the proficiency level band, he said that 69 per cent of students managed to achieve Band 5 and above for the reading domain, which is considered a good achievement, and even a third of students from low socio-economic status families managed to achieve Band 5 and above.
He said that for the mathematics domain, 74 per cent of students achieved Band 5 and above, thus showing an increasing trend in basic numeracy proficiency which is encouraging.
“This shows that the initiatives implemented by the MOE, State Education Departments, District Education Offices and schools have shown positive implications,” he said.
Among the MOE initiatives are teacher capacity development, special remedial programmes, shared reading programmes and primary school literacy and numeracy programmes.
In terms of gender, he said female students outperformed male students in the reading domain, but the achievement gap is narrowing, from nine points in 2019 to seven points in 2024.
He added that for mathematics, there is no longer an achievement gap between male and female students, and male students recorded a higher percentage in Bands 8 and 9 than female students.
Azam also said the socio-economic status gap remains a major challenge, with significant differences recorded between students from low- and high-income families, with a gap of 23 points in reading and 26 points in mathematics.
