From UPSR to SPM: What's Left After the Big Exams Were Abolished

If your child is now in Year 6, they will not sit UPSR. If that child is in Form 3, no PT3 awaits them. The major exams that once determined a student’s entire schooling journey — the same ones your own parents may have gone through under heavy pressure — have been gone for several years now. But many parents are still confused: what replaced them, whether they will be brought back, and what actually happens at their child’s school every day now.

The short answer: the major exams were replaced with ongoing assessment by teachers within their own classrooms. No centralised question paper, no single “big day” that decides everything — not until SPM in Form 5.

What was actually abolished, and when

Two major exams were scrapped in two consecutive years:

Exam	Level	Abolished from	Announced by
UPSR (Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah)	Year 6	2021	Senior Minister of Education, Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin
PT3 (Pentaksiran Tingkatan 3)	Form 3	2022	Senior Minister of Education, Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin

Neither announcement came from a standalone policy review — both followed on from the COVID-19 disruption. PT3 had already been suspended since 2020 because of the pandemic before it was finally abolished officially on 2 June 2022. UPSR, meanwhile, was fully abolished from 2021, with the Ministry of Education Malaysia (KPM) stating at the time that Pentaksiran Bilik Darjah (PBD) would be strengthened as the method of assessing pupils in its place.

What replaced them: PBD, not another exam

Many parents assume there must be a hidden “replacement exam.” There isn’t. What happened was a structural shift:

• Pentaksiran Bilik Darjah (PBD) — ongoing assessment carried out throughout teaching and learning (PdP) sessions, conducted by the pupil’s own class teacher based on the pupil’s level of mastery, rather than a single once-a-year test.
• PBD is part of a larger framework called Pentaksiran Berasaskan Sekolah (PBS), which also covers assessment of physical, sports and co-curricular activities (PAJSK) as well as psychometric assessment (PPsi) — not academic assessment alone.
• There is no centralised letter/number grade like the old “A” or “5A” style of UPSR/PT3; PBD reporting uses proficiency levels (typically TP1 to TP6) that are assessed by teachers over the course of learning.

This means Year 6 and Form 3 pupils today no longer face a “big exam day” at those levels — their assessment is spread across the year, within their own classrooms.

SPM: the major exam that remains

After the abolition of UPSR and PT3, Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) in Form 5 remains the only major centralised exam across a pupil’s entire schooling. SPM continues to be administered by the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate (Lembaga Peperiksaan, LP), a division under KPM, through the Centralised Assessment (Pentaksiran Pusat) format — uniform questions, a uniform timetable, managed centrally across the whole country.

According to LP’s official calendar, Form 5 pupils in 2026 will sit SPM in 2026, while the current Form 4 cohort will sit SPM in 2027 — maintaining the existing annual cycle. This structure is unchanged by the abolition of UPSR/PT3; SPM continues to operate as usual as the gateway to IPTA, IPTS, matriculation and STPM.

Why this resurfaced in 2026

A few years after PBD was fully introduced, parental concerns began to grow — not over the concept of PBD itself, but over the transparency and consistency of its implementation across schools. Without a centralised exam, parents found it hard to compare their child’s actual level against pupils at other schools, and some questioned whether teacher assessment was consistent enough across states and schools.

This public pressure led KPM to mandate the National Education Advisory Council (Majlis Penasihat Pendidikan Kebangsaan, MPPK) to review the need to reinstate UPSR and PT3, with the review’s findings expected to be brought to Cabinet level.

On 20 January 2026, Minister of Education Fadhlina Sidek confirmed the decision: UPSR and PT3 will not be reinstated. She stated that both exams were no longer suited to the current direction of education, and that KPM had chosen to keep moving forward with holistic, classroom-based assessment rather than return to the old major centralised exams.

What comes in its place: the Malaysia Learning Matrix

In response to transparency concerns without fully reinstating UPSR/PT3, KPM introduced the Malaysia Learning Matrix (Matriks Pembelajaran Malaysia) — a lighter form of centralised assessment compared to the old major exams:

• Implemented for Year 4 pupils starting 2026, and Form 3 students starting 2027.
• For Year 4, it covers four core subjects: Bahasa Melayu, Bahasa Inggeris, Mathematics and Science — scheduled on LP’s official calendar as part of the “Matrix Learning Year 4” 2026 programme.
• Questions are generated centrally from the KPM Question Bank (Bank Soalan KPM), administered entirely by the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate (including instruments and scoring guidelines).
• It is not a major exam like the old UPSR/PT3, and it is not a replacement for PBD — its purpose is to strengthen PBD with an assessment element that is more standardised nationwide, and to identify pupils who need early intervention before they move on to the next stage.

In short: parents hoping for a full “new version of UPSR” to return will not get one — but their children in Year 4, and (from 2027) Form 3, will sit a form of centralised assessment, just one with a different name, scope and purpose from the old exams.

Common mistakes

Assuming PBD means “no direct assessment at all.” PBD still assesses pupils continuously — the difference is that it doesn’t take the form of a single major exam paper once a year.

Assuming the Malaysia Learning Matrix is the same as the old UPSR/PT3. It is generated from a centralised question bank and managed by LP, but KPM itself stresses that it is not a major exam of the same scale and impact.

Assuming SPM is also affected by these changes. SPM is unchanged — it continues to run as usual, administered by LP according to the existing annual calendar.

Relying entirely on media reports while this news is still developing quickly. The status of an education policy like this can change following a Cabinet decision; always check the latest position on the official KPM portal (moe.gov.my) or the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate (lp.moe.gov.my).

What’s next

To understand where the schooling pathway leads after SPM, read /en/education/public-vs-private-universities on the difference between IPTA and IPTS admission. If your child is an international student, or your family has just moved to Malaysia, /en/education/international-students-studying-in-malaysia explains how the local schooling system works for non-citizens.