Ministry vows to end exam scam

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Education and Culture has promised to handle the complaints from some parents that their children's final scores have been tampered with.

"We have asked for a report from the West Java office of the ministry," Zainal A. Achmady, the director general of elementary and secondary education, said here yesterday.

"Meanwhile the scores remain as they are," he said.

Achmady was responding to last week's reports, when dozens of parents from 18 elementary schools went to the Bandung office of the Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) to complain of suspected manipulation of their children's examination scores, known as NEM (Nilai Evaluasi Murni). Similar complaints are being heard in other cities throughout Indonesia.

The calculation of the NEM includes final examination results and the student's progress in the given school year.

The parents told Melani, the head of the LBH office, that they felt it strange that students who obtained good grades in tests prior to the national exams, got lower scores compared to students who fared lower on the tests.

"We need to know what really happened, maybe it was an administrative mistake of giving the wrong scores to pupils," said Achmady.

"It would be illogical for a teacher to manipulate scores by lowering them, instead of giving them higher marks for money."

One parent said his child has always finished third place in his class, but this year he obtained a much lower score compared to his friends with poorer marks.

The legal foundation has sent a letter to the ministry to request that an independent fact-finding team be sent to Bandung.

Another case reported from Bandung is the "sale" of "improved scores" by teachers, priced at Rp 250,000 (US$111.46) to Rp 400,000.

In response to the apparently easy manipulation of examination scores with bribes, Achmady said it is the control mechanism which needs improvement.

"But any system, even with computerization, will not work if the people who are supposed to control join in collusions," he said.

The head of the ministry's research and development body, Sri Hardjoko Wirjomartono, said the NEM is currently under evaluation.

One of the problems raised is that the scores may not really reflect a student's capability, because the materials in the national examinations are not always familiar to students from diverse areas. (anr)