Subjects Your Child Will Be Learning Under The KSSR Syllabus

BI, BM, TMK, RBT. etc. We promised to reveal the meaning of these abbreviations from our previous post on Abbreviations You Should Know Before Your Child Starts Primary School In Malaysia.

If your child is starting primary school soon, he or she will be studying the KSSR curriculum. In our previous post, you would have found out that KSSR stands for Kurrikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah. The subjects that will be covered under the KSSR are as follows:

1. BM = Bahasa Malaysia. During exams BM is split into two papers which are BM 1 and BM2. BM 1 is mostly pemahaman and tatabahasa questions whereas BM2 is on Karangan or essay writing and includes a section called Nilai Murni (Moral Values)

2. BC/BT = Bahasa Cina/Bahasa Tamil. If your child is studying in a vernacular school, he or she will study either Chinese or Tamil depending on the school they are enrolled in. I have no experience with BT but in BC, like the BM paper, there are two papers during examinations which are BC1 and BC2. Similar to BM, the paper one is on comprehension and grammar while the paper two is on Essay writing.

3. BI - Bahasa Inggeris or English. There is only 1 paper in English. There is no essay writing involved. Only guided composition. You can see the difference between the English papers in SK school and SJKC schools here.

4. MT - Matematik in Malay or Mathematics. There are two papers but the marks are combined and regarded as one paper only. Previously children in Chinese schools had to study Maths in Chinese as well as English. Now they only learn the subject in Chinese.

5. SC - Sains in Malay or Science in English. Similar to Math. There is only one paper for Science but with Part 1 objective and Part 2 subjective. These days there are a lot of KBAT or HOTS questions for Math and Science. Refer to our previous post to find out what these abbreviations mean.

6. PM - Pendidikan Moral. Some schools carry out exams twice a year, but mostly 3 or 4 times a year. However, PM may not be included in all of the exams and may not be "counted" for calculating positioning in class/standard.

7. TMK and RBT = TMK=Teknologi Maklumat dan Komunikasi whereas RBT=Reka bentuk dan teknologi. These two subjects replace P.Sivik (Pendidikan Sivik) and KH (Kemahiran Hidup) which were subjects under the old KBSR curriculum. They are also not "counted" in class position which makes many parents, teachers and kids put these in the back burner. 

8. PJ, PK, PS = PJ= Pendidikan Jasmani or gym, PK=Pendidikan Kesihatan (textbook), PS=Pendidikan Seni. All not "counted". 

9. Sejarah = Under the new KSSR, Sejarah is now part of the syllabus for Std 4 onwards. Sometimes not counted and sometimes yes and at this time of writing, still not sure whether it is part of next year's UPSR which will be the first batch of students doing Sejarah since Std 4.

Below are some of the textbooks kids will be using in Year 1. They are free under the skim buku pinjaman. If the books you receive are very damaged when you receive them from school, you can request for another. If your kids lose the books, you have to replace them. A good place to buy them would be Popular bookstore or if you want to order them online, you can try to get these textbooks from Peekabook. Some parents get an extra set to keep at home to lessen the school bag load.

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