By SIMRIT KAUR and PRIYA KULASAGARAN

PUTRAJAYA: The percentage of students who answered the Science paper of this year's Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) entirely in English rose by 138% compared with last year's figure.

This is the first time ever that a majority of students had answered the paper in English.

This year, 51.2% of candidates chose English, compared with 30.8% who answered in Malay and 18% who used a combination of both languages. Last year, only 21.5% of candidates answered the PMR Science paper wholly in English.

Education director-general Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom described the increasing trend of candidates using English as "very encouraging."

"This year marks the fourth batch of students who took the PMR after studying Mathematics and Science in English from Form One," he said.

He said the final decision on whether the subjects would continue to be taught in English rested with Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein.

"We have already decided that the 2009 PMR will remain bilingual," he said at a press conference to announce the 2008 PMR results.

The subject that showed the biggest improvement in performance was English - the pass rate increased by 3.6% from 71.2% in (2003-2007) to 74.8% this year.

"Students are more comfortable using the language as they have studied Mathematics and Science in English for three years," he said when asked whether the improvement was linked to the policy of teaching both subjects in English.

A total of 26,378 candidates or 5.96% scored straight As in the PMR. Last year the figure was 5.65%, while in 2006 it was 4.83%.

Alimuddin said that at least 15% of candidates scored As in all the 16 subjects offered under the PMR.

"In many subjects, more than 20% of candidates scored As," he said.

The subjects with the most number of A scorers were Punjabi (56.2%), Iban (30%) and Living Skills - Technical (30.1%).

The disparity between the performance of urban and rural students was also narrowing. "Each year we see an improvement in the achievements of rural students," he said. An expert from Cambridge International Examinations in Britain, Kate Newcombe sat in on the evaluation process and setting of standards of this year's PMR.

"She said the standard of our Mathematics and Science paper was higher than Britain's," said Alimuddin.