Observers slam final exam formula
Observers slam final exam formula
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Padang/Kupang
Education observers say it is wrong to use the National Final
Examinations (UAN) as a tool to calibrate the standard of
national education and determine students' right to graduate.
The wide disparity in the quality of education between regions
has forced the Ministry of National Education to apply a
conversion formula to get more comparative figures for the exams'
results and to determine the standard of national education in
the country.
"The scoring system for measuring the national quality of
education should be done separately and it should not impact on
students' chances of graduating," education observer Arief
Rachman said on Wednesday.
Arief had earlier predicted the conversion formula would
alienate both teachers and students.
He said the conversion should not cause the scores of students
with good grades to fall. "It will demotivate these students, who
see their school transcripts as documents of lifetime
significance," he said.
The controversial conversion system lowers the scores of
students who can correctly answer more than 50 percent of the
test questions and raises the scores of students who answer less
than 50 percent.
Winarno Surakhmad, another observer, called the conversion
deceptive. Students who graduated with relatively low grades
would end up the with similar marks to those who graduated
because of good performances, Winarno said.
"The current conversion practice is not only deceptive, it is
an attempt to dupe the public and is a crime against students in
general," he said.
"Technically the conversion formula is dubious, while
politically the conversion is being used to create the notion the
UAN is successful and that there is nothing to worry about,"
Winarno said.
Chairman of House of Representatives (DPR) Commission VI
overseeing education Anwar Arifin said the conversion was a tool
to mark up students' scores nationwide.
"The practice runs contrary to the ministry's main reason for
taking central control of the UAN, which was to eradicate markups
by teachers and schools," Anwar said.
However, Anwar said he believed the UAN could be used as a
tool to measure the standard of national education.
All the observers spoken to by The Jakarta Post said the best
way to increase the quality of education would be to spend money
developing the quality and competency of teachers, improving
infrastructure and upgrading the management of education.
Arief said the implementation of the UAN and the increase in
the exam benchmark from a 3.01 to a 4.01 grade point average had
been done in a rush without allowing enough time for schools and
students to prepare.
"Every educational policy must at be announced at least two
years prior to its implementation so it won't cause panic. This
ministerial decree was issued in 2004 and the implementation was
immediate. It's wrong," Arief said.
An education observer from Nusa Cendana University in Kupang
in East Nusa Tenggara, A.M. Fanggidae, said an increase in exam
standards should also be followed by an increase in competency.
Another observer, Jasrial from the Padang State University
(UNP) in Padang, West Sumatra said it was not fair to set a 4.01
grade as a national benchmark, as many regions had been left
behind in terms of the quality of teaching staff, learning
materials and general infrastructure.
Jasrial said this disparity had caused the percentage of
students who failed their exams in West Sumatra to reach 60
percent.