Police deployed to guard school exam papers

JAKARTA (JP): The national final examinations for high school students began on Monday with the deployment of police officers at certain schools.

The police were assigned to watch over the examinations at, among others, SMUN 68 high school on Jl. Salemba Raya, Central Jakarta, SMU I Muhamadiyah high school on Jl. Kramat Raya, Central Jakarta, Islamic high school in Rawasari, Central Jakarta, and SMKN 26 vocational school in Rawamangun, East Jakarta. A police officer was seen at each school on Monday, Antara reported.

Head of the city education agency Alwi Nurdin said, after inspecting the national examinations at the high schools, that the feared exam leaks did not materialize on the first day of the four-day test.

He expected no leaks as they were processed under the procedural operational standard set by the Ministry of National Education, Antara reported.

The standard requires tight control over the storage of examination papers at accredited printing companies. Police and state intelligence officers were involved in enforcing the standard's procedures.

The papers were sent from the printing companies to local education offices a few hours before the exams commenced and were transported to the respective schools at 5 a.m. under police guard.

All members of the committee in charge of the exams were obliged to take an oath.

The committee has also prepared five different exam papers for each of the five mayoralties in the city so that if a leakage is found in one school, the papers can be changed with new ones.

Such examinations have been marred in the past by leaks, which forced some schools to reorganize the examination.

Alwi said that he would take firm action against anyone involved in leaking exams. Students could be expelled from school or be failed if they are found cheating.

A total of 133,138 senior high school students are taking part in this academic year's final examinations. Of that number, 35,515 students are from state senior high schools and state Islamic high schools, 31,003 students are from private high schools and private Islamic high schools, 12,881 students are from state vocational schools and 53,739 are students from private vocational schools.

The government has exempted the fees of national final examinations for elementary schools and junior high schools but not for senior high schools. The governor has set the fee for the national final examinations at Rp 68,300 for senior high schools, at Rp 80,350 for Islamic high schools and Rp 81,000 for vocational schools.

Parents, however, have often complained that they have to pay much more than the above fee set by the governor.