[Kabar-indonesia] Govt rejects demands to repeat exam [+Lampung students feel 'cheated']

[Joyo at aol.com]

also: Lampung students feel 'cheated'; and 
Jakarta to have tuition-free high schools

The Jakarta Post 
Saturday, June 24, 2006

Govt rejects demands to repeat examination

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government will not hold repeat tests for high school students who failed 
this year's national exam, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said Friday.

Speaking at his office in Jakarta, Kalla rejected calls for the Education 
Ministry to repeat the exam, so failing students could have another chance this 
year to continue their studies at colleges.

Some students with outstanding academic records, who passed university 
entrance tests last year, were unable to graduate because they failed their exams in 
May.

On Wednesday, Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo said his office was still 
weighing up an idea to repeat the exam, pending consultation with the House of 
Representatives.

Although 9 percent of almost two million high school students failed the exam 
nationally, Bambang said the failure rate was far less significant than the 
number of schools where all the students had successfully graduated.

Kalla said although there were a few students who failed the exams despite 
already being admitted to universities, this was not an adequate reason for the 
government to repeat the exam.

"Don't make the cases of five or 10 students a nationwide issue. The country 
has much more to think about."

He said any rerun of the exam would only defeat the purpose of the original 
testing.

The system was supposed to encourage students to study hard and they should 
not be put off further study because they failed to graduate, he said.

"Exams require studying. It's the same everywhere because exams provide 
(educators) with a map to see the overall national quality of education.

"If we repeat the exam, we'll be disadvantaging those who have passed. That's 
not fair because you cannot treat students who studied hard the same with 
those who didn't."

Repeating the exams would only send a bad message to students, he said.

"If we repeat them, students will not study hard because they'll think, why 
bother? They'll say 'we can stage protests'. 'I'll get my parents to fret about 
it and the government will repeat the exams'".

"If so, what kind of a generation are we preparing?" he said.

The Vice President also shrugged off the idea of lowering the passing grade 
from the minimum 4.5 requirement for the three core subjects tested -- 
Indonesian, Mathematics and English. Lowering grades meant lowering standards, making 
it more difficult for Indonesian students to compete internationally, he said.

"High schools in Malaysia or Singapore have already set a higher passing 
grade than ours. Malaysia sets it at 6, Singapore at 8. We only set it at 4.5. So 
it's no wonder that their students are (mostly) smarter than ours.

"If we lower our passing grade, are our children going to end up being merely 
low-paid laborers?" he said.

House Speaker Agung Laksono and other lawmakers have urged the ministry to 
rerun the exam.

Legislators from the House Commission X for education have argued that making 
passing the national exam a graduation requirement for students was an 
infringement of their basic rights.

Education observers have criticized the government for conducting a 
nationally standardized examination because they said it failed to take into account 
the inequities between regions in the country. 

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The Jakarta Post 
Saturday, June 24, 2006

Students in Lampung feel 'cheated'

Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung

Cheating your way to success didn't quite work out for a number of Lampung 
students who failed the recent national examination.

Rudianto, not his real name, went to see the principal of SMAN 12 senior high 
school Friday to vent his anger. The 19-year-old was among 57 students in the 
school who failed. There were 77 others who passed the test, the results of 
which were announced Monday.

"I'm so embarrassed, since I've always among the top five students in school. 
Now I didn't pass the test, even though I've been accepted at a state 
university in Java through a special achievement program," he said.

Rudianto and his friends were upset not only because they failed, but because 
they felt like they'd been stabbed in the back by their own teacher, who gave 
them the answers.

His confession has confirmed suspicions that several teachers helped their 
students on the national test.

RA, the parent of a student who didn't pass, blamed the teacher for his son's 
failure.

The teacher provided all the students with the answers on a piece of paper, 
free of charge.

The answers for the math test, however, were incorrect. RA claimed the 
answers were for the test given at competence-based high schools, instead of regular 
schools like SMAN 12.

"As a result, my son and his friends have grades below 4.2, while the minimum 
grade is 4.2," he said. "Now my son is traumatized and regularly cries in his 
room."

RA and other parents reported the matter to the national education ministry 
in Jakarta, hoping the examination could be repeated.

The head of the Bandarlampung city Library and Education Office, Syaiful 
Anwar, said his office has deployed a team to evaluate how the national 
examination was administered at schools, including SMAN 12. The team has not yet 
reported its findings.

In an effort to calm down upset parents and students, SMAN 12 has distributed 
letters allowing the 57 failed students to take another national senior high 
school test, locally known as Paket C.

The school principal, Tarman Jupani, confirmed that 57 students had failed 
after getting wrong tips from the teacher, identified as Fb., who is also the 
school's deputy principal.

He said it would be up to the city's education office to follow up. "Fb has 
been absent for the past several days. I'll go to her house to give her the 
request to speak to the education office about this," he said.

He said the incident is unfortunate since many of the failed students have 
been accepted as students or employees by various state universities, the state 
electricity company and the police.

"They're smart students. As the school principal, I hope those who have 
accepted our students without a test will wait for the result of the Paket C test," 
Tarman said.

Another failed student, Samsudin (not his real name), said he had already 
finished most of the math questions half an hour before the test was over. Then a 
friend gave him the answers to the 30 questions, so he replaced his own 
answers.

"My friend said the answers come from Bu Fb. We trusted our teacher, that she 
couldn't possibly give us wrong answers," he said. 

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The Jakarta Post 
Saturday, June 24, 2006

Jakarta to have tuition-free high schools

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta administration will expand its tuition-free education policy in 
2007 to include senior high schools.

Governor Sutiyoso said a proposal detailing the policy would be submitted to 
the City Council in November for approval to be factored in to the 2007 city 
budget.

"We are still putting in the groundwork to make it happen," he said Friday at 
City Hall.

"What matters most is that the young people of Jakarta at least graduate high 
school."

The head of the Jakarta Secondary and Higher Education Agency, Margani M. 
Mustar, said the program would be implemented over time, with the city's poorest 
students the first to benefit.

"We are waiting for the plan to be finished, before we familiarize the 
schools with it," Margani said.

Jakarta may be the first region to make high school education absolutely free 
in line with the country's nine years' compulsory study program. Free 
elementary and junior high school education in all regions was recently brought in by 
the central government.

On National Education Day on May 2, the government awarded Sutiyoso the 
Widyakrama medal for his achievement in developing the compulsory education program.

The city administration allocated Rp 3.7 trillion (about US$411 million), or 
more than 21 percent of its 2006 budget, for education, of which the basic 
education agency was allotted Rp 2.8 trillion.

The administration spent Rp 689 billion on providing free education for 
elementary and junior high school students in Jakarta and Kepulauan Seribu regency 
starting late January.

The administration pays monthly education costs of Rp 69,500 for each 
elementary school student and Rp 127,000 for each junior high school student.

The schools, however, can still ask parents to pay extra fees but in 
restricted amounts.

According to the head of the city's agency for basic education, Sylviana 
Murni, schools can impose fees of up to Rp 100,000 for elementary school students 
and Rp 125,000 for junior high school students.

But many parents have complained of being asked to contribute to the upkeep 
of the school or pay for their children's school certificates to be issued.

"I paid Rp 300,000 for the certificate of my son, who just graduated from 
elementary school, and Rp 600,000 for his elder sister, who graduated from junior 
high school," a housewife in East Jakarta said.

City Secretary Ritola Tasmaya said that 21 percent of the estimated Rp 20 
trillion in the 2007 city budget would be allocated for education, a large part 
of which would go on improving the salary and working conditions of teaching 
staff.

"The learning process is largely influenced by teacher's welfare, not just by 
guaranteeing the provision of education and facilities."

Ritola said the amount of the education costs borne by the administration 
would be dependent on the number of students at a high school and its size.

He said the education standards of high schools would also be assessed to 
prevent future cases of no students graduating from a high school.

The results of the national examinations showed this was the case at six 
private vocational schools and one private high school this year.

"This is still a very sensitive issue, which we have to deal with to increase 
the quality of our human resources," he said.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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