1,405 caught cheating during entrance exams

JAKARTA (JP): The national exam committee unearthed 1,405 cheating cases during the two-day nationwide state university admission tests last June, an official report said Saturday.

The committee has turned over to the police 22 people caught doing the admission tests for others, Soesmalijah Soewondo, a member of the national test committee, told The Jakarta Post.

The cheating occurred mostly in Manado, Ujungpandang and Malang, the report said. It also happened in Jakarta, Surabaya and Yogyakarta.

Soesmilijah accepted that such cheating practices always happen during college entrance exams and are difficult to eliminate. However, she refused to say if it is an indication that prospective state university students are not of the required standard.

"I believe it occurred owing to the stiff competition to enter state universities," Soesmalijah, a staff lecturer at the University of Indonesia School of Psychology, said.

During this year's entrance tests, the results of which were announced on July 27, only 63,753 out of 357,452 prospective students were admitted to the 89 state universities. Of the 63,753 admitted, 33,376 were enrolled in natural sciences programs and 30,377 in the social sciences programs.

State universities are the favorite choice of many students on account of their low tuition fees, thanks to substantial government subsidies, and the adequate facilities they offer.

"Many prospective students will do anything to enter state universities because studying at them is a lot cheaper than at private ones," Soesmalijah said.

She said this year's high incidence of cheating is regrettable. "The students did not seem to have enough self- confidence," she said.

Prospective students who had their tests done by others were dropped from the list and turned down, she said.

Last year, a total of 593 "jockeys", or people who sat the tests for others, were caught throughout Indonesia. Jockeys are known to cooperate with corrupt insiders.

Test participants are divided into three regions according to where they live: Group A, comprises 17 universities in Jakarta, Sumatra, West Kalimantan and West Java; Group B comprises nine universities in Central Java, Yogyakarta, South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and East Kalimantan; and Group C comprises 17 universities in East Java, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, Maluku and Irian Jaya. (31)