National exam failure rate doubles this year

National exam failure rate doubles this year

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In contrast to a reported rise in the average pass grade, the
number of students who failed the national final examinations
this year rose by almost 100 percent, highlighting a widening gap
between provinces in the quality of secondary education.

"Compared to last year, the number of students who failed the
national exams has doubled, especially in conflict-prone and
geographically isolated areas," the director of the Ministry of
National Education's research and development agency, Mansyur
Ramly, told a media conference on Wednesday.

However, there was a significant improvement in the average
pass grade from 5.32 last year to 6.25. The higher failure rate
was mostly contributed to by senior high school students.

This year, the government increased the grade required for a
pass by senior high school students to 4.26, up from last year's
4.01. The exams were held earlier this month.

Students who do not pass the national examinations will not
be awarded the certificates that they require to continue their
studies. Schools, however, are allowed to accept students who
failed the exams under certain conditions, such as good marks in
math and English.

Those who failed the national exams will be given extra
lessons before sitting repeat tests from Aug. 23 through Aug. 25.

"The mechanisms and funding for these will depend on
coordination between the regencies and provinces," said the
ministry's director general of primary and secondary education,
Indra Djati Sidi.

The ministry reported that students in 233 out of 433
regencies in the country scored below the average benchmark for
junior high school level (53.8 percent). There were 189 regencies
(43.65 percent) where junior high school students were rated
below the standard and 183 regencies (42.56 percent) where
vocational school students fared below par.

West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara, West
Nusa Tenggara, Bengkulu and Papua all had more than 26 percent of
students failing. Aceh reported a more than 30 percent failure
rate, mostly because of the tsunami, which also badly disrupted
education there.

The highest failure rates were reported in Pegunungan Bintang
and Sarmi regencies in Papua (for the junior and senior high
school levels) and Riau Islands regency (for the vocational
level).

In order to improve the country's standard of education, this
year the education ministry does not propose to apply a grade
equalizer, which in the past was used to close the gap in pass
rates between more developed and disadvantaged regions. Last
year, an equalizer was used as more than half of the students who
sat the exams did not pass.

"The decision (to drop the equalizer) is needed to improve the
quality of the country's national education," Vice President
Jusuf Kalla said after a meeting with education minister Bambang
Sudibyo.

The increase in the failure rate was partly blamed on the
quality of the country's teachers. The ministry's director
general of teaching staff development, Fasli Djalal, said that
only between 10 percent and 20 percent of teachers scored above
average in competency tests conducted to assess their
capabilities.

"All regions have started evaluating their teachers'
abilities," he said, adding, however, that so far only 10 percent
of teachers nationwide had been assessed.

Fasli added that with the new national education legislation,
teachers' competency standards would improve.

"The minimum requirement for teachers is a D4 or S1 education,
with an additional 38 to 40 credits in the professional
competence subject."

D4 programs offer four years of study but no academic title,
while an S1 refers to a bachelor's degree awarded by a
university.

Fasli explained that currently there were no primary or
secondary teachers in the country who satisfied these criteria,
and that it would take 15 years to gradually upgrade their
abilities through training. (003)