Bookstores sales not heavily impacted by UPSR abolition

A bookshop at Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman only sells current stock revision books.

KUCHING (May 1): Sales of bookstores here are not heavily impacted by the abolition of the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) for Primary 6 pupils because ‘it was expected’.

Most of the bookstores proprietors here when met said they have been expecting the announcement and were not surprised by the Ministry of Education’s (MoE) decision.

One bookstores along Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman said they have stopped ordering UPSR books since the Movement Control Order (MCO) started in Sarawak in March last year.

“We have not been ordering UPSR, PT3, SPM, STPM revision books since the MCO in March 2020 because there were not many customers.

“Whatever you see here are our current stocks, and we have not been replenishing them. We only sell whatever we have here.

“Sometimes we do get orders from schools about certain topics but not sold in the bookshop, we will order for them first according to the amount they want,” said the bookstore supervisor who wanted to remain anonymous.

She said they understood that during MCO there will be no classes and no examinations, and even if stocks arrived, customers would cancel their orders.

“Of course it will be a loss for us, and we have to bear the charges when we return them back to publication companies in Peninsular Malaysia.

“When MCO started, we totally stopped ordering unless there’s necessity and follow on what customers want,” she added.

A proprietor of another bookstore said revision books not sold would be returned to the publishers at their own cost, and some would be written-off.

“Definitely, we are making a loss when we have to return the books back at our cost, and books that need to write-off will also incur cost, because they are no longer viable and we cannot keep them,” he said.

He also said that the announcement by the MOE was expected and did not surprise him.

“We expect the announcement to come but we do not know when, not until two days ago. The ministry has been talking about it (to abolish UPSR) for few years, so it’s finally here

“As for the writing-off of the revision books, we had been through that many times. Every year we would need to write-off a lot of books. It’s no longer a lucrative business,” he said.

When asked what he is going to do with the write-off books, he said they will be sent to a recycling centre to be processed into items beneficial to society.

“We will recycle them and processed them into something beneficial which the society or community can use,” he said.

Recently, MOE announced that the UPSR for Primary 6 pupil will be abolished starting this year.

Its minister Datuk Seri Mohd Radzi Md Jidin said there will be no replacement examinations.

He said assessment for Year Six pupils will be carried out exactly like what was done in 2020, that is through classroom assessment (PBD) due to Covid-19 outbreak in the country.

Radzi also announced that the Form 3 Assessment (PT3) examinations will be cancelled for 2021, amid the Covid-19 pandemic that has yet to be contained.

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