Education Coalition Asks Yudhoyono to Kill the National Exam
Education activists said on Friday that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s acknowledgement of problems in the country’s education sector was not enough and now he had to take steps to remedy the shortcomings.
Yudhoyono on Thursday said the controversial annual national examination should not be the sole determining factor in whether students graduate. He did not, however, provide any concrete solutions.
The exam has long been plagued by cheating, and many critics question the fairness of giving the same test to students across the country when the quality of teaching and school facilities varies widely from region to region.
The Education Coalition, a group of NGOs, said the president’s statement indicated that he was aware of the problems with the national exam.
“The president shouldn’t just acknowledge [the problems], he should solve them. Don’t just say that they’ll fine-tune it,” coalition member Jimmy Paat said.
Yudhoyono said students who failed the annual exam should be allowed to retake it soon after the results were released, but activists pointed out that the Ministry of National Education had already put in place the policies for this year’s exam.
The president also suggested a possible return to the National Final Study Evaluation (Ebtanas), but added that such a move would require further study.
Ebtanas — which combined an exam results with students’ school grades — was replaced by a national exam in 2003 amid a long-running controversy over the possibility for abuse under the old system.
This year, students must get an average score of 5.5 out of a possible 10 in each of the subjects on the national exam in order to pass and be eligible to advance to the next level.
Though the ministry has always insisted that the examination is not the only criteria for graduation, experts say the exam scores are the chief determinant.
Jimmy said problems with the national exam were chronic, and that students are not the only ones to feel the stress of a make-or-break test. Teachers and school administrators, he said, are also pressured to help students cheat to pass so the school’s standing is not adversely affected.
He asked the president to step in and fix all the problems surrounding the exam.
“Stop the national exam. Maybe this year’s national exam can no longer be canceled, but next year there shouldn’t be another national exam under this system,” he said. “Final assessment should be done by teachers and schools.”
Sulistiyo, chairman of the Indonesian Teachers Union (PGRI), which represents 1.9 million teachers around the country, has said numerous times in the past that during the national exam process teachers are often encouraged to help students cheat by local administrations eager to make sure test results “don’t embarrass their regions.”
“Teachers are actually crying seeing this, because this is against their principles,” Sulistiyo said.
Wildan, another member of the Education Coalition, urged students and parents across the country to cooperate to stop the national exam.
He said the coalition had held talks with several NGOs at the local level, and that most of them had agreed that the national exam was a violation of children’s rights.
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