Exams at elementary schools

Exams at elementary schools

JAKARTA: Beginning next month the government will publicize a
program, which entrusts each elementary school to run its own
exams after it eliminated the national exams for the schools
(Ebtanas), an official said.

"We will start getting the word out on the new exam structure
next month. We are now preparing various related regulations with
regard to the government's decision to drop Ebtanas, including
autonomy for each school to do its own exams. The minister of
education and the directorate general (of the elementary and
secondary schools) will send around information packets,"
Director General of the Elementary and Secondary Education
Indrajati said in Magelang, Central Java, on Tuesday.

Each school is expected to start doing its own exams beginning
in July, he said.

Minister of National Education Abdul Malik Fajar revealed last
month the government's plan to eliminate Ebtanas for elementary
schools in relation to the nine-year compulsory education
program, and will also reduce some of the cumbersome bureaucratic
procedures for the junior high exams.

The plan to scrap Ebtanas has received a thumbs-up from both
teachers and education experts, pointing out that the existing
system is redundant, misleading and prone to corruption.

The government's idea is expected to entrust each school to
run its own exams and should empower both the teachers and the
schools as the national exam was not a good indicator of the
quality of the education program or curriculum.

It was instead turned into a cash-cow for unscrupulous
administrators, wherein students were forced to pay exam "fees"
in order to pass the test, enabling them to go on to junior high
school. -- Antara