21,800 students fail final examinations<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
It was a bad day on Monday for many senior high school students
\nin Jakarta when they received letters sent by mail to their home
\nto inform them that they had failed the final examinations, held
\nunder the new system.<\/p>\n
The Jakarta High Education Agency said that out of the 131,151
\nhigh school students participating in the exams, more than 21,800
\nor 16 percent did not pass.<\/p>\n
The figures excluded students in the neighboring cities of
\nBogor, Tangerang, Bekasi and Depok.<\/p>\n
Last year, only 3,342 students out of the total 133,600
\nstudents failed the exams conducted under the old system.<\/p>\n
\"We are evaluating the results of the final exams to find out
\nwhy so many high school students failed this year's exams,\" the
\nagency spokesman, Abdul Hamid, told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
However, the increase in the number of students who did not
\npass the exams was believed to be related to the implementation
\nof the new national examination system.<\/p>\n
Under the new system, students can only continue their studies
\nat a university level if they pass the final exams and obtain a
\ngraduation certificate.<\/p>\n
Unlike the old system, in order to obtain a diploma students
\nmust get at least a 6.0 point average in all subjects in the
\nfinal exams, and each score must be above 3.0.<\/p>\n
The students who did not pass this year's exams were mostly
\nthose from vocational high schools (SMK), which comprised more
\nthan 17,440 or 27 percent of the total 62,898 students.<\/p>\n
The remaining 4,400 students who failed the exams were those
\nfrom high schools (SMU), or 6.55 percent of the total 67,253
\nstudents.<\/p>\n
Head of the agency's high school division Thaher Husein said
\nthe ill-fated students would still be given a second chance to
\ntake an exam scheduled for between July 1 and July 10.<\/p>\n
In Tangerang regency, Banten, a senior official of the local
\neducation agency, Abdu Surahman, said that 30 percent of high
\nschool students there had failed the final exams.<\/p>\n
\"That's because the government has imposed the new exam system
\nthis year,\" he added, referring to the new policy issued earlier
\nthis year by the Ministry of National Education.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Monday's announcement of the examination results
\nwas received peacefully in Jakarta, thanks to the move to send
\nthe results by mail to the houses of the students, unlike
\nprevious years, when the results were announced at schools.<\/p>\n
This was often marred by vandalism as students gathered in
\ntheir schools, spraying paint on friends' uniforms, school walls,
\nand parading around the city which in most cases led to student
\nbrawls.<\/p>\n
Yanti, a student of state high school SMK 6 in Cibulan, South
\nJakarta, said she received her results via e-mail as the school
\nadministration urged the students to stay out of school on the
\nlast day of school.<\/p>\n
The move was to avoid possible violence during end of school
\ncelebrations, she added.<\/p>\n
\"In past years, students gathered at schools to spray paint on
\ntheir uniforms and nearby buildings. They held mass rallies and
\noften fought with students from other schools. So now the school
\nuses e-mail and letters to announce the results of the final
\nexams,\" she said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/21800-students-fail-final-examinations-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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