Malaysia's fifth-form students received their results for national examinations on March 31, 2026, but a purported statement from education authorities showing a breakdown of achievements by race circulating on Facebook is a fabrication. The Ministry of Education denied publishing the document, which contains formatting and spelling errors. The country's exam board typically provides an analysis of each year's results that shows differences between urban and rural students, but not by ethnicity.

The purported Malay-language document, titled "Media statement: Malaysian Certificate of Education (SPM) results", was shared on Facebook on April 1.

It features the Malaysian coat of arms and is apparently issued by the Ministry of Education, presenting a breakdown of top scorers in the national SPM exam -- the leaving examination for secondary school students -- by race.

The statement claims that 31.43 percent of Malay students, 88.21 percent of Chinese students and 81.48 percent of Indian students achieved top marks.

Malaysia introduced its New Economic Policy in the 1970s as it sought to address economic disparity among the different racial groups and rolled out a race-based quota system in higher education that favoured the majority Malays, who were historically underrepresented in universities (archived link).

The same document showing the purported results breakdown by race was shared elsewhere on Facebook soon after Education Director-General Mohd Azam Ahmad announced the analysis of the 2025 SPM examination results on March 31 (archived link).

However, the official breakdown showed performance distribution across time, urban and rural students and overall candidate success rates, but not by race.

A keyword search on Google led to the analysis of results for past years published by the Malaysian Examination Board on its official website, which does not mention a breakdown of top scorers by race (archived link).

Subsequent keyword searches found the Ministry of Education rejected the circulating announcement on its official Facebook page on April 1, saying it aimed to "confuse society" (archived link).

"The Ministry of Education (MOE) has never issued any statement regarding the 2025 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) results based on race, as has been spread online," reads the Malay-language post.

An analysis of the document circulating on social media also shows its typography and design differ from genuine statements issued by the education ministry (archived link).

The font and alignment of the text in the letterhead of the falsely shared document are different. It also contains typos and is missing the date the statement was issued.

AFP has debunked other false claims circulating in Malaysia that use doctored or fabricated news reports or official press statements.