Legislator calls for termination of national exam

JAKARTA (JP): Following reports of manipulation of elementary school pupils' final scores, a legislator has suggested that the government scrap the national examinations altogether.

Wuryanto of House of Representatives' Commission IX expressed serious concern yesterday about reports of the selling of improved scores for certain prices and the lowering of the scores of pupils whose parents were unable or unwilling to pay the bribes.

"These reports have reached a saddening level," Wuryanto, who is a former rector of the State Teachers' College in Semarang, was quoted as saying by Antara.

Wuryanto made the remarks during a hearing of the commission, which oversees education and religious affairs, with Director General of Elementary and Secondary Education Zainal Arifin Achmady.

About 30 parents in West Java recently complained to the Bandung Legal Aid Office that they suspected manipulation of their children's final examination scores. They said children who usually got low marks could receive high exam scores by paying bribes of up to Rp 400,000 (US$178.25).

Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro said earlier that the reports referred only to a few incidents.

"If clever students get lower scores than less clever students due to manipulation by teachers and parents, this could be destructive of students' mentality," Wuryanto warned, without elaborating.

During the hearing yesterday, Achmady reiterated the government's stance that the national examination system, as well as the procedures for the calculation of students' final scores, are to be maintained.

"We still need a national standard by which to evaluate students," said Achmady.

The final scores, known locally as NEM (Nilai Evaluasi Murni), are calculated on the basis of both teachers' routine evaluations of students through semester reports and students' scores in nationally-held examinations.

The nation-wide standard is needed to establish rough estimates of the respective abilities of students from different areas, Achmady said.

As the NEM is a prerequisite for entrance to junior high school, manipulation has frequently occurred.

Achmady acknowledged that his office had been receiving suggestions about various other ways of calculating the scores and about ways of dealing with the alleged manipulation.

"This dilemma (of combining the need for a national standard with evaluation by teachers which are accessible to bribes) demands our deeper comprehension," he said.

Achmady also told the hearing, chaired by legislator Muhammad Affandi, about difficulties being faced by the compulsory nine- years education program.

Launched last year, the program aims at ensuring that all children have a minimum of nine years of schooling. The project is an extension of the previous compulsory six years of schooling program.

A total of 6.27 million children aged between 13 and 15 are not yet receiving the secondary schooling required under the "nine-years" program. The government says it expects that by the year 2009, the target of enrolling all school-age children in school will be reached.

"Our survey revealed that one of the difficulties is the unwillingness of children in industrial areas to go to school," said Achmady. He did not give details of the places he was referring to, nor did he elaborate about the survey.

"Many elementary school graduates working in industry don't see any reason to continue going to school," he said. "There is no incentive to do so because companies pay junior high graduates the same wages that they pay to elementary school graduates."

Achmady said that more "open junior high schools", with schedules that are more flexible and geared to the time constraints faced by working children, are needed to solve the problem. (anr)