National Exams must not determine students' fate

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