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)