Fewer students sit entrance exam for state universities
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.