The Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (PSR) or Primary School Assessment is conducted annually here in Brunei Darussalam for Year 6 students in all government and private schools, except international schools. The subjects in this exam are Bahasa Melayu, English Language, Mathematics, Science and Melayu Islam Beraja (M.I.B) covering all topics from Years 4 to 6.

While I think it is a good way of assessing how much our children have learnt from Years 4 to 6,  this year is particularly exceptional because of the very long 3-4 month “break” from school due to COVID-19 cases in the country.  Although ‘online schooling’ was available at that time, each school provided a different way of doing the online lessons. For example, while other schools did Zoom lessons, my children’s school only provided worksheets to be answered at home and video links (mostly YouTube) explaining the topics. My children didn’t like watching the YouTube explanations and I found myself teaching everything myself. This was definitely not easy as I had my own online music students to teach. I can’t blame the school though, the teachers did their best. It is not easy creating online resources. I spent a minimum of about 5 – 6 hours for every original 4-minute video I created for my music classes! Not forgetting to mention that some school teachers were stranded out of the country and couldn’t get into Brunei for many months, even after schools have re-opened.

Now that schools are back with face-to-face lessons, I find that the children are still struggling to catch up with the lessons they’ve missed. Schools are definitely trying to cover all the topics needed for the PSR but the teachers are breezing through these real quick. Thankfully, the Ministry of Education has decided to postpone the exam to November (the exam was originally set in October). But I am still not very sure whether all Year 6 topics can be covered thoroughly.

My son and I have come up with some ideas on how to revise effectively everyday. I’ve seen some improvements in his Mathematics problem-solving skills and English, as well as in Bahasa Melayu. But we have a lot to catch up on Science and MIB! I will definitely share and update our website on the resources and activities that we find useful in preparation for the PSR. My hope is that we can complement whatever the teachers are teaching at school with daily revisions at home.  We don’t send our children for extra tuition classes (the ones many people do outside of school). First, because it’s too costly and the timing is inconvenient for working parents like us. Second, because we believe that children should have a balance of other activities like music, art,  house chores, playing with other children and learning various lessons from the realities of life. 😀

We wish all the children sitting for PSR the very best results!