Claims that 17000 failed SPM History paper untrue

PETALING JAYA: The Education Ministry has rubbished claims that 17,000 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) students failed their History paper last year.
"The Ministry would like to inform the public that rumours making the rounds on social media that 17,000 SPM 2017 candidates failed the subject are not true.
"To date, the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate has not announced any results pertaining to the SPM 2017 examination," it said in a statement today.
The ministry urged the public and all relevant quarters not to be duped into believing the rumours, claiming that the results would be released soon.
"We regret any inconvenience caused over the matter," it said, adding that anyone who had any questions could contact the ministry directly.
The ministry also posted on social media platforms Facebook and Twitter, saying: "The ministry denies the matter. It is not true. Claims that 17,000 candidates for the History subject failing their papers are baseless".
The post was accompanied by an image of screenshots of postings by social media users making the alleged claim.
The rumour first emerged on Twitter earlier this week, with the news quickly making its rounds on social media.
Many netizens, especially SPM candidates, had commented on the matter, the majority hoping that they are not amongst the 17,000 students who supposedly failed the subject.
The 2017 SPM results are expected to be released in the second week of March.
A total of 443,883 candidates sat for SPM nationwide across 3,363 centres that took place between Nov 6 and Dec 4, 2017.
The History subject was made a must-pass paper in SPM since 2013 along with the Bahasa Malaysia subject, meaning students would have to pass both papers to be able to obtain the SPM certificate.