Fewer students have to sit repeats

Fewer students have to sit repeats

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Budi (not his real name) was chatting with neighbors when the
postman arrived at his gate carrying a letter from SMK 32
vocational high school in South Jakarta, where Budi had studied
food and beverage services for the past three years.

"It was around 11 in the morning when I received the letter. I
was shocked when I read it: 'You did not pass the national
examination,'" he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

High schools, vocational high schools and junior high schools
across the country announced the results of the national final
examinations on Thursday.

In Jakarta, about 128,941 high school and vocational high
school students took their examinations earlier this month, and
according to City Middle and High Education Agency head Margani
Mustar 86.7 percent of them passed the exam.

"Only 13.3 percent of 128,941 high schools and vocational high
schools failed the exams, compared to 17 percent in 2004,"
Margani said at City Hall.

The number of high school and vocational high school students
who took the examinations last year was 126,195.

In 2005, students had to receive a score of at least 4.25 out
of 10 in Bahasa Indonesian, English and mathematics in order to
pass the exams. A passing score in 2004 was 4.01.

Margani said students who failed the exams would receive
additional lessons before repeating the tests from Aug. 23 to
Aug. 25.

City Primary and Secondary Education Agency head Sylviana
Murni said 127,849 junior high school students took the final
exams this year and 3.07 percent failed. In 2004, 117,652
students took the exams and 7.8 percent failed.

"The highest score on the exam went to Diptarama, a student at
city-owned SMP 252 in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta, who scored a 10
in math, a 10 in English and a 9.8 in Bahasa Indonesian," she
said.

Although the number of students in the capital who passed the
exams went up, the Ministry of National Education announced on
Wednesday that nationally the number of students who failed the
tests this year almost doubled.

The national failure rate for junior high school students
soared to 13.62 percent from 6.96 percent last year, while the
failure rate for high school students doubled from 9.22 percent
to 20.19 percent. The percentage of vocational school students
failing jumped to 16.69 percent from 9.49 percent.

Budi said if he failed to pass the final exam in August, he
would cancel plans to enroll at Bina Nusantara Informatika
college to study computers and information management.

"Thank God, as a food and beverages student I already have a
temporary job as a chef at a Japanese restaurant. If I fail the
second national exam, I will keep the job and forget about
enrolling in college," he said.

The vice principal for student affairs at SMK 32 vocational
high school, Husni, said of the school's 134 students who took
the exams, 40 of them failed.

"Most of them failed in English. The number is big, but I
heard even more students failed at other vocational high
schools," he said.

According to data from the City Primary and Secondary
Education Agency, 18.7 percent of the vocational high school
students who took the exams this year failed. This is higher than
the number of public high school students who failed. (006)