Rahman, a pseudonym, did not expect to receive a question that veered\naway from academic matters when he applied for the Lembaga Pengelola\nDana Pendidikan (LPDP) scholarship in 2018. He was asked about his views\non interfaith marriage. As someone who had benefited from a modern\neducation and read widely on pluralism, Rahman felt the question was a\ntrap.<\/p>\n
\u201cI answered that as long as the two people loved each other, there\nwas no problem,\u201d said the 31-year-old man from Brebes, Central Java, to\ndetikX.<\/p>\n
However, one of the panel members refuted Rahman\u2019s argument. The\nexaminer claimed that interfaith marriage is prohibited in Indonesia, as\nset out in Article 2(1) of Law Number 1 of 1974 on Marriage. This\nstatute states that a marriage is only legally valid if conducted\naccording to the laws of the respective religion or belief.<\/p>\n
The issue, Rahman says, was that the examiner\u2019s question did not\nspecifically address the rule but only concerned personal views. For\nRahman, opinions or views are free and he believed he was entitled to\nexpress any view he believed to be true.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the question had been about the rule from the start, I could have\nsaid the rule prohibits it, although there are many loopholes that could\nbe argued,\u201d Rahman said.<\/p>\n
That one question, according to Rahman, was what caused him to fail\nto obtain the LPDP scholarship. Rahman\u2019s dream of studying abroad nearly\nvanished. The tens of millions of rupiah he expended pursuing a\nscholarship to study abroad nearly went to waste.<\/p>\n
During the LPDP test preparation process, Rahman admits to having\nspent at least Rp 20 million. First, he needed to study intensive\nEnglish at Kampung Inggris, Pare, Kediri, East Java, for eight months at\na cost of about Rp 10 million. Then the International English Language\nTesting System (IELTS) test cost about Rp 2.6 million. This was in\naddition to travel expenses from Brebes to Jakarta and accommodation in\nJakarta for the LPDP test, costing about Rp 7.5 million.<\/p>\n
Fortuitously, Rahman eventually secured a scholarship at a university\nin Italy. The entrance test for this scholarship was far easier than the\nLPDP one. The examiners only asked questions relevant to the department\nRahman intended to study.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey only asked about forestry, my thesis, agroforestry,\ncommunity-based forest management, which is precisely my field,\u201d Rahman\nsaid.<\/p>\n
A nearly similar experience was had by Anggi, a pseudonym. The\n31-year-old woman has attempted LPDP five times. Two attempts failed at\nthe scholastic aptitude test stage when she sought to pursue a Master\u2019s\ndegree in 2018 and 2019. Then three times failed at the interview stage\nwhen Anggi aimed to undertake a PhD in 2024-2025.<\/p>\n
In the LPDP interview session, Anggi recalled receiving questions\nthat, in her view, slightly strayed from academic matters. One\ninterviewer asked about her readiness as a wife and a student who would\neventually become pregnant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey asked how she would cope if she became pregnant in the middle\nof her studies and how she would manage her child,\u201d Anggi told\ndetikX.<\/p>\n
That question seemed to limit women\u2019s opportunities to pursue higher\neducation by pitting education against child-rearing. As if women must\nnot have any priorities other than caring for children. Indeed, Anggi\nargued that child-rearing is not solely the burden of women but of men\nas well. Moreover, Anggi added, rather than asking about the candidate\u2019s\ndomestic arrangements, interviewers should focus on questions that test\nthe candidate\u2019s academic abilities.<\/p>\n
Besides those allegedly discriminatory questions, Anggi felt the LPDP\nscholarship test tended to lack transparency. Questions irrelevant to\nthe academic scope made pass\/fail decisions highly subjective. There\nwere no clear criteria for what the examiners actually wanted or\nmeasured. Moreover, the interview is the final test in the LPDP\nprocess.<\/p>\n
This process differs markedly from other scholarship tests. As a\nrecipient of a scholarship from a Hungarian university, Anggi felt that\nthe campus entrance test was far more objective. Because admission was\nmeasured solely on academic ability rather than extraneous factors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe selection process was consolidated into a single\nplatform\u2014scholarship selection and university entrance were combined. So\nyou don\u2019t have to apply separately; it\u2019s all on the website in one\nplace. It tends to be easier and more transparent,\u201d Anggi said.<\/p>\n
The existence of off-topic questions is also acknowledged by another\nLPDP scholarship recipient, Jumari, a pseudonym. Jumari revealed that\nmany of her friends, especially women who were fellow scholarship\nseekers, faced questions that were offensive, discriminatory, and\nmisogynistic.<\/p>\n
For example, Jumari said one of her female friends was asked about\nmarriage plans to a foreign national (WNA). The candidate had never\nmentioned marriage in her motivation letter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the context of my friend\u2019s story, it was very offensive. And\neventually my friend did not pass,\u201d Jumari told detikX.<\/p>\n
Education analyst and diversity activist Tunggal Pawestri says the\nissue is a classic LPDP problem. He conducted a simple study with LPDP\nrecipients and candidates regarding questions in LPDP interview sessions\nin 2017. The results showed many participants reported questions that\ntended to be SARA (ethno-religious), sexist, and political, especially\nduring the session on national insight.<\/p>\n
In this session, examiners frequently asked participants for their\nviews on Papua\u2019s independence and the Indonesian Communist Party. One\nexample was whether the state would be right not to place PKI offspring\nin government. Or questions about participants\u2019 views regarding Papua\u2019s\nindependence.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/the-batman-trap-in-the-lpdp-test-1772629150", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }