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