Training & Support
Leading international assessment provider, GL Education, has signed a three year partnership agreement with Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA), which will see diagnostic and benchmarking assessments being used to support teaching and learning in a selection of Maktab Rendah Sains MARA (MRSM) across Malaysia.
Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA), or the Council of Trust for the People, an agency under the purview of the Ministry of Rural Development, was established on 1 March 1966 as a statutory body by an Act of Parliament as a result of the first Bumiputera Economic Congress resolution in 1965.
The Council is responsible for developing, encouraging, facilitating and fostering the economic and social development in the federation, particularly in rural areas.
The partnership supports MARA, an agency of the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development in Malaysia, in its mission to improve teaching, learning and student development. GL Education will support the partnership with a comprehensive series of training and workshops for teachers at Maktab Rendah Sains MARA (MRSM).
GL Education’s assessments are used by schools in the UK and around the world to understand students’ potential, track their progress and identify any barriers to learning they may have. MRSM will use a complementary suite of assessments from GL Education, including the Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT4) (to identify potential), the New Group Reading Test and the Progress Test Series (to track progress in core subjects year-on-year) and the Pupil Attitudes to Self and School attitudinal survey (PASS) (to support student wellbeing).
Kamaruzaman Jaffar, Director of MARA Secondary Education Division, said: “In our continuous drive towards outstanding academic achievement, we also believe in the development of holistic individuals. As one of the prestigious boarding schools in Malaysia, Maktab Rendah Sains MARA is entrusted to produce students, who are from various socio-economic and education backgrounds, who excel in the fields of science, technology and entrepreneurship. We believe in tapping into the students’ abilities and we therefore feel strongly about investing in tools that will enable teachers to identify and measure other domains of intelligence in our students.
“To prepare our students for the challenges of the future, it is not only enough to gauge the students’ scholastic attainment but we also need to be able to identify their cognitive abilities and higher order thinking skills in order to maximise their potential. Assessment tools such as CAT4, NGRT, the Progress Test Series and the PASS attitudinal survey will help teachers and education administrators to support this growth and provide the best learning experience for the students.”
H.E. Vicki Treadell CMG MVO, British High Commissioner to Malaysia, said: “I wish to congratulate GL Education on its partnership with MARA. The partnership will see GL Education’s innovative assessment tools being used to identify the needs of individual students in order to accelerate learning. The assessment system is to be rolled out in two MRSM in November 2017.
“This is yet another example of the success of our Education is GREAT campaign, designed to support Malaysia’s efforts to become an education hub in the region and to cement the UK’s position as Malaysia’s and ASEAN’s education partner of choice.”
James Neill, GL Education’s International Director, said: “The desire to gain a complete picture of a student’s skills and achievements in order to meet the challenges of an increasingly competitive world has resulted in governments, education ministries and schools around the world looking at assessment differently. MARA is taking an innovative approach to assessment and we are delighted to work with them in this way, supporting the development of their teachers and bringing benefits to thousands of children across Malaysia in the process.”
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About GL Education
GL Education (known in the UK as GL Assessment) has a growing presence in British, bilingual and international schools in over 100 countries worldwide. We also provide assessment services to ministries of education and their agencies. For more information about GL Education, visit www.gl-education.com
