Exams show gap among RI schools

Exams show gap among RI schools

P.C. Naommy, Jakarta

The results of the national high school exams show that, contrary
to earlier fears, most students achieved the minimum passing
grade of 4.01 out of 10 points, according to the education
ministry.

The national exam results will be announced publicly on June
14.

According to the research and development department of the
Ministry of National Education, the results also indicated a
consistent gap in academic performance between schools of the
eastern and western regions, with the latter faring better.
Meanwhile, the nationwide average of students who failed the
exams was only 10.22 percent.

While this year's passing grade remains low, even in
comparison to the 2003 minimum passing grade of 3.01, educators
pointed out that disparities in regional conditions still
contributed to the gap in students' ability to master the
national curriculum.

A nationwide standard was applied to the exams without
considering such discrepancies and amid protests from educators
and parents.

"Even though 10.22 percent can't be said to be an acceptable
failure rate, we feel we are at least moving toward a more
reasonable figure," research and development secretary Herwindo
said on Thursday.

Following the education ministry's decision to raise the
passing grade, education observers predicted that up to 25
percent of 2.5 million high school students would fail the exams.

Research and development head Dodi Nandika expressed greater
concern over the range of failure rates among individual
provinces, ranging from 3.58 percent to 30.69 percent across the
country.

Dodi said the highest failure rates were recorded in eastern
Indonesia and in areas with ongoing conflicts.

The ministry acknowledged that the academic gap was caused by
the disparity in the number of teachers, their competence and
inconsistent infrastructure.

Head of education research at the ministry Bahrul Hayat said
it was difficult to recruit teachers willing to be posted in
remote regions and in conflict areas.

At least 50 teachers assigned to Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam have
been killed between 1999 and 2003, while about 170 others were
seriously injured or tortured and even kidnapped by the
separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), according to official
sources.

The sharp disparity in teachers' competence was already
evident in the yearly recruitment process. "While most teachers
from Java were above average, those from the eastern regions did
not even reach the expected level of competence," Bahrul said.

To overcome the problem, the education ministry has combined
resources with the office of the Coordinating Minister for
People's Welfare to hold a national recruitment fair.

"This would enable us to recruit teachers to provinces that
need teachers proficient in particular subjects," said Bahrul.

The ministry reported that 1,195,457 state high school and
Islamic high school (MA) students sat the eight-day exams that
began on May 10.

Of these, 89.99 percent passed, and the remainder will be
given a chance to retake the exams from June 6 to 8.