30% of junior high school students will not graduate
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Almost 40,000 students or 30 percent of the total number of junior high school students in the city will not graduate from school as they will not be able to pass the national examination, which started on Monday, an official said.
Head of the City Basic Education Agency Gito Utomo Purnomo said on Monday that due to the high number of students who were expected to fail, his office would hold a second test for the students. This means that he would need another Rp 1.58 billion to finance the test the students who fail in the first exam because the cost to test one student is Rp 40,000.
He told reporters that the estimate was based on the results of the final exam for junior high school students in the city last year.
"The standard of the exam is similar to last year's exam. But, for this year's exam, the pass grade is calculated differently," Gito said while accompanying Governor Sutiyoso who was visiting several junior high schools.
In past years, there was only one graduation certificate and nearly all students received the certificate even though they did poorly in the exams.
Starting this year, the education ministry has imposed a new policy on the graduation of junior high and senior high schools. According to the new policy, the students will receive two certificates.
The first certificate indicates the student has passed the final exam successfully and thus is entitled to continue on to higher education.
The second certificate will only certify that the student has completed junior or senior high school. Students who finish school but do not pass the final exam will be able to apply for a job, but will not be able to continue their study.
Earlier reports said that under the new policy, in order to obtain a pass certificate, the students must get at least 6.0 as an average score of all subjects in their final test, and each score must be more than 3.0. The score ranges between 0 and 10.
The new policy also rules that a student's behavior at school, commitment to school, and other subjective factors would not have any bearing on his or her grade.
The government used to prepare the tests for all subjects. But now, only three subjects, Maths, English, and Bahasa Indonesia, are prepared by the government, while the rest of the subjects are prepared by the schools themselves.
Unlike past years, students who fail in the national exams will get a second chance to sit an exam.
Gito said that the second test would be held on July 8, 9, 10.
The new policy is based on Ministry of National Education Decree No. 017/U/2003, issued early in February, on the national final examinations for junior and senior high school students.
Komaluddin, an official at the basic education agency in charge of junior high schools, said that 10 students from Aceh had come to the city to join the exams.
He said more Acehnese students would be welcome to take the tests here.
"As long as they bring their school report and a letter of transfer from the school, the administration process will be done in one day," he said.
A total of 131,934 junior high school students are taking this year's national test.