Please Don’t Get Tired of Interim Assessment Practice in Malaysia!

Abstract

The Ministry of Education Malaysia (KPM) has announced the abolition of Level 1 examinations for primary schools and has established assessment as the method for measuring, evaluating, estimating, and reporting students' achievements comprehensively. This change aims to minimize dependence on examinations while giving teachers autonomy to assess the full progress of students continuously and without being bound by examination schedules. To alleviate the burden on teachers, KPM has initiated a phased assessment system or interim assessment, where examinations are no longer conducted either at the school level or center level for students from Year 1 to Year 3 starting in 2019. Therefore, this concept paper aims to list three main challenges in implementing interim assessment for the practice of Arabic language assessment in Malaysia. In addition, this concept paper also proposes solutions to each of these challenges and explains the implications and further recommendations. The three main challenges are the competence of teachers in conducting interim assessments of Arabic language (IAAL), students' lack of understanding of interim assessments of Arabic language (IAAL), and the difficulty in selecting suitable interim assessments of Arabic language (IAAL). This concept paper is unique because there has not been much exploration of interim assessment in the Arabic language in past studies, whereas these challenges need to be identified to establish appropriate interventions for the target audience. Further recommendations can be made by the Ministry of Education Malaysia through relevant discussions on interim assessment, especially involving the Arabic language. This study needs attention because interim assessment appears to be sidelined compared to other dominant assessments such as formative and summative assessments. The implications of this study are to improve assessment in a more targeted and accurate manner. Additionally, positive effects indirectly arise through pedagogical diversity that can be mapped with interim assessment in the Arabic language.