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.