The Perception of Teachers in Malaysia toward Alternative Assessment in Schools/ Persepsi Guru di Malaysia Terhadap Pentaksiran Alternatif di Sekolah

Assessment is an important component in education because through assessment, teachers and parents get information about student development. In 2010, the Malaysian Ministry of Education introduced School-Based Assessment, which is a form of alternative assessment as an effort to move away from the examination-based education system. Now this assessment is better known as Classroom Assessment. Since it was first introduced, many parties have given various responses to this modern assessment. Teachers are important stakeholders because they act as implementers of this assessment in schools. This article was written to review teachers' perceptions of this assessment and give suggestions to improve this assessment system. An extensive survey of past studies and also interviews with 6 teachers at a school in the state of Johor were conducted to achieve this objective. Each teacher interviewed taught a different subject at the school. Findings show that teachers in Malaysia have mixed perceptions of this assessment. Most teachers have a positive perception and acknowledge the advantages of this assessment in forming holistic students. In addition, the teachers also stated that they were not given enough understanding and training before this assessment began to be implemented. There are also teachers who feel that this assessment adds to their workload and they lack time to carry it out. The teachers emphasized that the implementation mechanism needs to be improved. Teachers do not reject changes in the assessment system for the better, but the implementation needs to be done based on accurate research, training and sufficient facilities.