Fewer students sit entrance exam for state universities
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The number of students taking the 2003 state university admission exam (SPMB) declined by 12.11 percent to 350,306 students from 398,589 in 2002.
The head of the exam committee for Region I, Aman Wirawartakusumah, said here on Tuesday that on the first day of the two-day test only four areas recorded an increase in the number of test takers -- Medan in North Sumatra, Padang in West Sumatra, Pekanbaru in Riau, and Bogor in West Java.
On average, the decrease in the number of test takers in Region I reached about 6.48 percent, from 204,278 in 2002 to 191,033 this year. The highest decrease took place in Region II, where 28.92 percent fewer students took the exam, with Yogyakarta seeing the largest drop.
In Region III the decrease was about 8.11 percent -- from 101,694 last year to 93,443 this year.
Almost 83,000 places are up for grabs in 48 state universities across the country in 2003, up from 80,000 places in 2002.
In Jakarta, 53,403 students took the admission exam on Tuesday, down from 57,604 students in 2002.
Koesmardiono, the head of the Jakarta chapter of the state university admission exam, said the expense of registering for the exam prevented some students from taking the test.
It costs between Rp 95,000 (US$11.20) and Rp 120,000 to register for the exam.
In Yogyakarta, known as the city of students, only 21,080 people took the test, a 46 percent decrease from last year.
The head of Yogyakarta's test committee, Tony Artyanto Dharoko of Gadjah Mada University (UGM), said the drop was not surprising given that nationally the number of students taking the exam was down.
Also, he said, the number of high school students had been declining and at the same time some state universities were giving their own entrance exams, leaving a limited number of places to be won through the national entrance test.
UGM, for example, will fill only some 1,500 out of 6,000 openings for the 2003/2004 academic year through the national exam, Tony said.
The university has already admitted some 4,000 new students through its own entrance exam held last April, and another 500 students through nontest special schemes.
Yogyakarta State University plan to admit some 3,000 new students from the national entrance test, after already accepting some 1,500 students through a nontest selection process.
In Surabaya, East Java, a student from Papua arrived about two hours late for the exam and was turned away for being more than 30 minutes late.
In Semarang, the number of students taking the test decreased by 16.6 percent from 19,339 students in 2002 to 16,135 students.
In Bandung, the testing ran smoothly. Several students arrived late because they did not check the location beforehand.
In Aceh, the emergency military administration was asked to oversee the test and send the exam papers to Jakarta.
The papers are expected to arrive in Jakarta on July 3, said the secretary to the central committee of the admission test.
This year, 10,049 students took the exam in Aceh, down from 10,724 last year.
In Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, a serious traffic jam clogged up the streets near the exam location on Jl. Brigjen H. Hasan Basry.
The number of students taking the test in Banjarmasin decreased from 3,646 last year to 3,458 this year.