Reassessing School Rankings: A Question of Relevance

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Education Minister for Basic and Secondary Education (Mendikdasmen) Abdul Mu’ti has stated that school ranking systems may encourage bullying. Are rankings still relevant?

In many schools, formal ranking practices are no longer publicly announced as they once were.

However, some schools still apply them selectively, typically during report card distribution or specific academic evaluations.

So, is the ranking system still relevant?

On the other hand, opinions on rankings remain divided. Some view the system as crucial for motivating learning, while others see it as a source of pressure due to reducing student abilities to mere numbers.

According to him, the foundational assumptions of ranking systems have been proven not to align with classroom realities.

“The ranking system assumes all children have the same starting point, interests, and intelligence. This is academic laziness in assessing humans,” Ubaid told Kompas.com on Wednesday (27 May 2026).

He argues that measuring students with a single metric and ranking them risks overlooking the diversity of their abilities.

“Measuring the intelligence of musicians, future athletes, and scientists with one tool and ranking them is a form of injustice,” Ubaid said.

Despite formal ranking practices declining, educational reality shows that ranking has not been fully eliminated.

Students still face various forms of academic competition, from advanced classes, Olympiads, talent pathways, to university entrance selections based on academic achievements.

He believes schools should shift the focus of competition from defeating others to self-improvement.

“Competition should not be aimed at beating peers, but at overcoming one’s own limitations,” he said. He also advocates for more collaborative learning methods to prevent students from growing up under the pressure of constant rivalry.