School final examination still needed: Official
JAKARTA (JP): Officials at the Ministry of Education and Culture maintain that state-run national school final examinations (Ebtanas) are still necessary, despite some flaws.
Speaking to journalists during a break in a hearing between education minister Juwono Sudarsono and House of Representatives Commission VII for education, Director General of Elementary and High School Education Indra Djati Sidi described calls to abolish the national exams as "emotional".
"I think we must look into the philosophy (of why the exams are held)... They function as an accelerator for schools to advance their achievements," Indra said.
The mandatory examinations were also designed as a means for the ministry to evaluate individual schools and the effectiveness of the national curriculum, he explained.
Students in elementary, junior high and senior high schools across the country are required to take state exams in addition to final school exams in order to graduate.
However, state exams, which are drafted by the government, have been dogged with controversy as reports of leaks of exam questions become an almost annual phenomenon.
Controversy over the examinations surfaced again during a hearing with the House a week ago when the Indonesian Association of Education Scientists (ISPI) suggested that the exams be scrapped.
The association claimed that the exams were held too often and were too easily marred by officials either leaking the questions or manipulating the final results, which are commonly referred to as NEM.
It suggested that such government-organized examinations be replaced instead by school examinations. Such a measure, they added, would also allow students to thoroughly study subjects in which they were particularly interested without being overly burdened by studying subjects required in a national curriculum which often had little significance to the students' everyday lives.
The association argued that teachers could also truly "educate" their students and not just merely drill them to get good grades in national exams.
Indra admitted that there were still problems with the implementation of national exams, however the government would continually address these problem per case instead of scrapping the whole policy.
University
Meanwhile, the ministry's Director General of Higher Education Bambang Suhendro told reporters that the government would allow university authorities to decide for themselves how far they would tolerate students' political activities on campus.
"The government will let university leaders and students make their own agreements.
"The government will view only the rector as the one in charge and responsible for the campus. So to what extent a rector gives (his students) freedom will depend on him alone," Bambang remarked.
Bambang said Guidelines for Student Organization was currently being drafted by a team of university deputy rectors in charge of student affairs.
The new guidelines, expected to be completed by the end of the month, would become the basis for consideration to replace Ministry of Education and Culture Decree No. 0457/0/1990 which covers student activities on campus.
He said the guideline would allow greater freedom for student organizations and that students themselves would be allowed to discuss the form their organizations take with their university leaders.
Touching on the economic crisis which has hit the nation and caused nearly a third of students from elementary to high schools to drop out, minister Juwono told legislators that steps had been taken to reduce the financial burden of obtaining an education.
Among these include an end to tuition fees into all state schools, the provision of free books for basic subjects and students will be exempt from purchasing new school uniforms if their parents' cannot afford to buy them.
He also assured legislators that stern measures would be taken against those who demanded additional or unnecessary fees to be paid under the guise of school necessities. (aan)