PETALING JAYA: Most of the Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) 2020 candidates who scored a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 4.0 are from low-income (B40) families.

       Malaysian Examinations Council (MEC) member Datuk Dr Wahid Razzaly said a total of 741 candidates (or 1.72%) scored a 4.0 CGPA, out of which 554 (or 74.76%) were from the low-income group.

       “A total of 23 candidates scored 5As in all five subjects they took, a drop from the 42 candidates in STPM 2019, while 718 obtained 4As in STPM 2020, also a drop from 760 candidates in 2019.

       “The number of candidates who scored a 4.0 CGPA, which is all As in a total of five or four subjects they took, have gone down from 802 in 2019 to 741 (a drop of 7.61%) in the 2020 STPM,” he added.

       A total of 44,704 candidates registered for last year’s STPM, a drop of 3.32% from the previous year, he told a virtual press conference announcing the STPM 2020 analysis yesterday.

       On the other hand, he said the number of candidates who obtained a 3.09 CGPA has shown an improvement from 33.45% in 2019 to 33.69% in 2020.

       Students from urban areas continue to record a higher CGPA achievement of 2.80, compared with rural candidates who scored 2.78, while all 23 subjects offered in the STPM 2020 examinations recorded a passing rate of more than 70%, he added.

       Overall, he said the STPM 2020 examinations saw an improvement in the CGPA, with a score of 2.78 compared with 2.77 in STPM 2019.

       Wahid, who is also Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia vice-chancellor, said there was an improvement of 0.01.

       “However, in terms of the candidates’ overall achievement, the achievements of last year’s STPM candidates are considered the same as of those the previous year, because of the small improvement,” he added.

       He said all 23 subjects offered in the STPM 2020 examinations recorded a passing rate of more than 70%.

       He also said there were only 3,752 candidates who opted for the science subject while 40,952 others took the social science subject.

       Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Wahid said two STPM papers were marked online via e-marking.

       Under the MEC’s Way Forward strategy, he said it plans to implement e-marking for all STPM subjects in the future.

       Giving his assurance that the STPM 2020 standard was implemented efficiently, he said this was done through the STPM 2020 Certification Committee Meeting, with the advice and supervision of the Cambridge Assessment International Education, the United Kingdom.