KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 (Bernama) -- The Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) results of four schools in Sabah have been held back for a review and will only be announced on Monday, Education Director-General Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom said.

He said that the examination board had to carry out the review as there were irregularities in the answers given by the pupils.

Three of the schools are in Tawau while the other is in Keningau.

"The subjects involved are Bahasa Malaysia, English and Mathematics," Alimuddin told Bernama today.

"Due to the irregularities in the answers given for the three subjects, the ministry decided to hold back the results so that they can be reassessed.

"The reassessment is now completed and the students will be able to get their results on Monday," he said.

The nationwide UPSR results were announced two days ago.

Asked whether the decision was due to leaks of question papers, Alimuddin said it was not the reason.

"This has happened before and it is not due to leaks of question papers.

What happened was the examination board found that there were doubts in the answers given by the students and decided to hold back the results," he said.

He did not name the schools.

Asked on the concerns voiced by parents about their children's chances of being accepted into fully boarding schools, Alimuddin said they should not be unduly worried over the matter.

He said that the selection of students into boarding schools was handled by the Education Ministry.

He added that the ministry had a list of students eligible for fully boarding schools.

"The decision to hold back the result will not affect their chances of being accepted into fully boarding schools," he said.