Malaysia Examinations Syndicate (1956-present)
Dates
- Existence: 1956 - 2022
Biography
Malaysia Examinations Syndicate (Lembaga Peperiksaan Malaysia) is a body that administers secondary school exams in Malaysia.
Before it was an independent country, Malaysia, formerly known as Malaya, was under British colonial rule. UCLES’ operations in Malaya began in 1891, when the Cambridge Senior Certificate was offered for the first time as a secondary school leaving exam. UCLES examinations in Malaya were interrupted during the Japanese occupation of the area from 1941 to 1945. Cambridge exams resumed in 1946, with the Senior Certificate examination replaced by the Oversea School Certificate. Government education departments in the states of Malaya assisted with the administration of these exams.
The Higher School Certificate was available in Malaya from at least 1947, but entries were generally low until the mid-1950s.
The Malaysian Examinations Syndicate was founded in 1956 as a unit of the Ministry of Education. It began operating as a distinct organisation the following year, when the Federation of Malaya became independent from the UK. Two new examinations were introduced in 1957 – the Lower Certificate of Education (LCE), taken in the third year of secondary school, and the Federation of Malaya Certificate of Education (FMC), which was parallel to the Oversea School Certificate. The FMC comprised most of the same question papers as the School Certificate, but included a compulsory Malay language paper instead of English. Candidates were able to take either or both examinations. The Malayan Examinations Syndicate worked with UCLES on the exams, with question papers in subjects like Malay, Chinese, Tamil and Islamic Studies set locally and moderated by UCLES.
In 1958, a year after Malaya became independent from the UK, the University of Malaya began to work with UCLES on the Higher School Certificate examination. The University of Singapore also collaborated in this exam from 1962.
After independence, schools with Malay-language teaching were established. In 1962 a parallel FMC examination, known as the Malay-medium FMC (Sijil Pelajaran Persekutuan Tanah Melayu), was introduced. This comprised Malay-language versions of regulations, syllabuses and question papers, with candidates answering in Malay. This was the first time an UCLES examination was conducted fully in a language other than English.
In 1963 the Federation of Malaya joined with North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore to form Malaysia. The following year, the English-medium FMC exam was renamed as the Malaysia Certificate of Education (MCE), and the Malay-medium FMC was renamed as Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM).
Singapore became an independent country in 1965, and went on to establish its own examinations system.
Parallel Higher School Certificate papers in Malay began to be offered from 1966, under the name Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan (STP).
The UCLES School Certificate examination in Malaysia began to be phased out during the late 1960s and 1970s. It was held for the final time in 1969 in peninsular Malaysia and in 1977 in Sabah. At the same time, the Malaysia Examinations Board began to take on more administrative functions of the LCE, MCE and SPM examinations, leading up to the Board taking full control of these exams in 1978. Soon after, the LCE was replaced by the Malay-language Rendah Pelajaran [Lower Certificate] and the English-language MCE was withdrawn in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah.
In 1980, Malaysia Examinations Council was established by an Act of the Parliament of Malaysia. Two years later, the MEC took over the administration of the Higher School Certificate and its Malay language counterpart STP. Soon after, these were replaced by a single exam, the Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) [Malaysia Higher School Certificate].