National Exams must not determine students' fate

Mateus Yumarnamto, Surabaya

Ignoring the controversies surrounding the National Examination for junior and senior high schools in Indonesia, the Minister of Education Bambang Sudibyo has issued the schedule for the examinations. This year the national examination will be held twice; the first in May-June and the second in October. The second examination is meant to give an additional opportunity for students to pass. The government insists that a national examination is needed to maintain quality and establish a national standard for junior and senior high schools.

The goals of the national examination sound quite reasonable, however in practice there has been much criticism. Last year, a controversy erupted on the score conversion used, which was considered not to be transparent. Parents complained bitterly about the fairness of the conversion and schools complained of inconsistency. The outcry was such that authorities eventually had to withdrew the controversial conversion.

Educational practitioners have also criticized the exam. The big question they ask is "what for?" Do we need a national examination to improve the quality of education? Keeping in mind that the government has promoted school-based management that promotes their autonomy, so that in future each school will have roots in its local community and can meet the demand of that community. Furthermore, each school has its own identity and its own uniqueness and strengths. This school-based management system was developed to deal with the problems of a centralized educational system, applied since Soeharto's New Order regime took power in 1965. The national examination system is simply not in line with the policy of school-based management.

The government believes that standardized national examinations can improve the quality of education since students and schools will try harder in order to meet the demands of passing it. However, education deals with human beings, and the process of education is not like a production process in a factory. The examination is used to test the accumulation of knowledge and skills mastered by students during the educational process and test questions have been carefully framed based on certain statistical considerations. Consequently, the examination measures not the whole achievement of students, but merely a part: the cognitive faculty. The process of education, on the other hand, considers human beings as unique creatures with diverse and dynamic personalities. Their achievement, therefore, cannot simply be measured using a standardized test.

National standardized tests can be manipulated. Instead of improving teaching-learning processes in the classroom, schools will rather develop drilling techniques to anticipate the examination. As a result, scores in the national exams will probably be higher, but will not reflect the quality of education. Learning, once again, drops to the lowest common denominator. It lacks interest -- no creativity, no fun, no exploration.

How about the teachers? By conducting national examinations, will teachers improve and develop their skills and knowledge? All they have to do is prepare their students for the exam. What then is the point of individualized learning by preparing modules and interesting activities if in the end students face an examination that has no concern for the affective and creative aspects of the student's education? What is the point of paying more attention to the uniqueness of a student's personality if in the end they face a standardized and uniform test that has no concern for individual uniqueness? The biggest concern of teachers will be equipping themselves with test-drill resource packs, a quick and easy way to be called a good teacher.

So what is the purpose of this national examination system? The answers vary. For the government, a standardized national test means it can control the quality of schools so that in future every school in the nation can meet the minimum demands of the national standard. This year the passing grade for the national examination is 4.25 of 10 (last year 4.01). For the school, the national examination will determine their prestige on the national stage. For teachers, the national examination requires no skills, just drills. For students who take the examination, the benefit is far from clear. For those who pass the examination, other tests are waiting if they want to continue their education. Junior high school students have to compete to get into the best senior high school in town. Senior high school students who want to continue their study to a university have to take an entrance test.

A national standardized test is one way to control the quality of education. The problem is that it determines whether or not the students pass a certain level of education. The schools have no authority and the government does not place any trust in schools. Passing students at a certain level of education, junior or senior high school, is the right of schools. Schools and teachers know their students best. Why should the government burden themselves with such a responsibility? A national standardized test is fine as far is it is meant to control the quality of schools, but it must not determine the fate of a student.

The writer is a lecturer at the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education of Widya Mandala Catholic University in Surabaya. He can be reached at mateus@mail.wima ac.id