High school examinations running smoothly

JAKARTA (JP): The state-run final examinations for senior high schools (SMA) in the city, which began two days ago, are running smoothly, officials reported.

"The exams have been proceeding as expected," Zainal Arifin Achmadi, the director general of elementary and intermediate education of the Ministry of Education and Culture, told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

Zainal made the remark during his inspecting visit to the privately-run Islamic SMA Al Azhar, South Jakarta, after having inspected SMA 6 Mahakam, SMA 70 Bulungan and SMA 46, three state- run senior high schools in South Jakarta.

Zainal's visit was part of a South Jakarta tour made by three inspecting teams from the Directorate General of Elementary and Intermediate Education and the Jakarta Office of the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Zainal implied that no examination questions have been leaked or sold to students, as has frequently occurred in the past.

Commenting on cases of state examination materials being sold to senior high school students a few years ago, Zainal said the root of the problem lies in exam questions being photocopied, especially because "those who reproduce the questions are not our people."

Zainal's opinion was supported by Nannies Wiryoatmodjo, an inspector from the city office of the Ministry of Education and Culture. "The source of the leakage lies in the hands of those involved in the printing of the examination materials," Nannies said.

Source

Another possible source of leakage, according to Nasichin, a divisional head of the directorate general, could be if exam questions are sold by school officers who transport them from the ministry to their schools.

However, this is considered highly unlikely by Jajoek Masroeriah Assaat, the principal of SMA 6, who is supervising this year's state exams in 28 schools in South Jakarta.

"The principal of the school, accompanied by at least one staff member, is the only one authorized to receive the exam questions," Jajoek said, adding that all school staff who are involved in administering the state exams are required to sign a statement that they will not deliberately disclose any question or part of a question to any parties.

Jajoek said, each morning between five and six, school principals are required to accept exam questions to be used for that day only.

Hiring the service of the police is another measure to secure the secrecy of the questions.

"The exam materials, which came here on May 1, are kept in a room, guarded around the clock by two policemen," Rafli Rusli, the principal of SMA 68 in Central Jakarta, told the Post.

Ismeth AH, the deputy principal of SMA 4 in Central Jakarta, which also hires the police's service to help secure exam questions, said schools are allowed to ask for police assistance during the examination periods.

Measures

When asked what measures are being taken to prevent such leakages, Zainal said different questions are given to different groups of students in examination areas called "rayon."

For this year's state exams, Jakarta is divided into 13 examination areas, two in Central Jakarta, one in North Jakarta, two in West Jakarta, four in South Jakarta and another four in East Jakarta.

Should any leakage occur, we can quickly identify and locate the most likely source of the leakage, Zainal said.

And to anticipate such a leakage, the ministry has prepared six substitute exams which can be immediately used to replace exam questions which are found to have been sold to students, Nasichin added.

Another measure is the students' names are being replaced by codes so it is impossible for correctors to identify the students whose answer sheets they are correcting, Jajoek said.

To enhance objectivity during correction, at least two teachers are required to correct the answers, Jajoek said, adding that the answer sheets are distributed at random to teachers for correction.

A total of 58,663 students in Jakarta are at present taking the nationwide state-run examinations for senior high schools, which will continue until the end of this week. (06)