Now, PSR results will come to you via SMS!

GETTING the results of this year's Primary School Assessment (PSR) will be at parents' and guardians' fingertips as the Ministry of Education are collaborating with DST Communications Systems Sdn Bhd, B-Mobile Sdn Bhd and Mach Telecommunications to bring a value-added service to the receiving of examination results via Short Messaging System (SMS).

The ministry yesterday held a briefing for headmasters and headmistresses of both public and private primary schools nationwide at Rimba I Primary School. Relaying information regarding the new service were the Acting Director of Information Communication Technology, Hj Abd Rahim Derus, and Acting Director of Examinations, Hj Muhd Masa Masdi Muhd Sa'idun.

They spoke of the background of the service as well as its terms and conditions for the public interested in subscribing to it. Parents and guardians who want to get a hold of the results as soon as possible can register for the service through the ministry's portal on www.moe.edu.bn. DSTCom users can also do so through SMS. In both cases, subscribers need to make sure that both centre numbers and candidate numbers are accurate.

During the briefing, participants were reminded to pass on the information to parents and guardians through circulars and memos. After registration, which begins tomorrow (November 10), the personalised results would then be pushed to mobile phones via SMS as soon as permission is granted from higher authorities.

Compared to previous years where parents and guardians would approach the ministry and pay $10 for a diskette with the results, the service costs only $3.During the briefing, Hj Abd Rahim explained that diskettes will no longer be made available to the public.He said that the results via SMS was made an option as it would have almost 100 per cent penetration to the public. He added that in the future, the same services may be extended to other public examinations.

During a question and answer session after the briefing, he acknowledged that with the ministry promoting the use of ICT in schools, there is a possibility that results may also be sent via emails in the future.

It was clarified yesterday that the ministry would not be held responsible for delays or unsuccessful delivery of SMS results due to the mobile phone being switched off, network failure, network congestion or natural catastrophe.

Among the terms and conditions included that the forwarding of the SMS result is not permitted.