Ministry vows to end exam scam

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)