Math, English put students to the test

Math, English put students to the test

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Mathematics, economics and English have been found to be the most
difficult subjects for Indonesian students, despite Indonesia's
apparent success recently in the international math and science
Olympiad.

The Ministry of National Education said that based on the
results of this year's national final examinations publicly
announced on Thursday, junior and senior high school students
generally faced difficulties in these three subjects.

At the junior high school level, there were high failure rates
in mathematics and English, the ministry's center for evaluation
of education head Bahrul Hayat said on Thursday.

He said senior high school students experienced difficulties
in social science studies.

"For the senior high school level in social studies, it was
economics and English," Bahrul said, adding that numbers were
still being finalized after Thursday's announcement.

Earlier on Wednesday, the education ministry reported that the
number of students who failed the national secondary education
exams increased by almost 100 compared to last year, especially
in conflict areas.

A total of 4,896,033 secondary level students nationwide took
their final examinations earlier this month. They comprised
2,988,733 junior high school students, 1,248,808 senior high
school students and 658,492 vocational high school students.

On average more than 16 percent of them, or some 750,000
students, failed the exams and will have to sit repeat
examinations on the subjects in which they scored below the 4.26
passing grade.

In Jakarta alone, out of around 63,000 senior high school
students taking the exams, 2,656 social studies students scored
below the standard of 4.26 in economics, and 1,186 science
students failed in mathematics.

The failing students will repeat the examinations from Aug. 23
to Aug. 25, the education ministry said, adding that it has
allocated Rp 50 billion (US$5.1 million) to fund the
supplementary examinations. The first round cost up to Rp 250
billion.

In an effort to improve the country's education standards,
this year the education ministry decided not to apply a grade
equalizer, which in the past was used to close the gap in pass
rates between more advantaged and disadvantaged regions. Last
year, an equalizer was used as more than half of all students
failed the exams.

"The results show the actual quality of our education since we
do not use the old converted scoring method," Bahrul said. "We
make the questions equally difficult for all regions to obtain an
objective result of the actual quality."

Discrepancies in the nation's quality of education occurred
not only in comparison between provinces or regencies, but even
between neighboring schools.

A private senior high school in Depok, Bogor, with only 31
third grade students, reported that only 62 percent of their
students passed this year's final examinations.

Suparti, headmaster of SMU Tadika Pertiwi in Depok, explained
that most of the exam's questions were applied econometry, while
her social studies students were more accustomed to memorizing
theory.

Meanwhile, only a quarter of an hour's journey from the
private school, one of Jakarta's most popular public senior high
schools reported that only three out of its 359 students failed
the exam.

The education ministry claims that the examinations were aimed
at mapping strengths and weaknesses of each school to better
channel assistance and funding in future.

The ministry has said that the examination results would not
be a sole consideration on whether students would graduate from
schools.

However, its latest regulations on national standards of
education state that it is compulsory for students to pass the
national exams in order to obtain a certificate.

Some education experts have opposed and criticized the idea of
measuring students' competency through centralized examinations.

"Higher standards can be set after all the conditions are
met," activist Yanti Muchtar said. "Those (conditions) are
competent teachers, sufficient infrastructure and contextuality
to local conditions."

She added that it would be better for the schools themselves
to decide whether their students should pass to a higher level or
not. "Logically, they are the ones who know full well their
students' ability and progress."

"And anyway, should one's intellectuality be measured through
a single test? Whatever happened to the saying that learning is a
process?," she asked. (003)