Form Five students nationwide begin sitting for their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2016 examination today.

Bahasa Melayu Kertas 1 is the first paper in the important examination being held until Dec 6 involving 434,535 registered candidates.

The Education Ministry said 3,732 examination centres have been opened throughout the country which also involved 32,220 invigilators.

Parents and teachers as well as state Education Department representatives were seen giving pep talks to the candidates before they entered the examination halls accompanied with a short prayer.

A total of 377,194 or 86.8 percent of the SPM 2016 candidates are from government schools, government-aided schools and government-aided religious schools according to an earlier statement from the ministry.

The rest are from state religious secondary schools (7,931 or 1.8 percent), private schools registered with the ministry (12,847 or three percent), independent candidates (25,713 or 5.9 percent) and people's religious secondary schools (1,756 or 0,3 percent).

Other candidates under government agencies besides the Education Ministry are students from MARA Junior Science College comprising 9,094 or 2.1 percent. -- Bernama