SPMB 2026 Evaluation: Rerie Calls for Urgent System Overhaul and Integrity Culture
The implementation of the 2026 New Student Admission System (SPMB) has once again been marred by various allegations of fraud, reflecting the persistent weakness of the supervisory system and a low culture of integrity within the education sector. This phenomenon serves as a loud alarm for stakeholders to immediately conduct a comprehensive evaluation and fundamental improvement.
Deputy Speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR RI), Lestari Moerdijat, stressed that merely relying on supervisory measures and regulatory enforcement is no longer sufficient. According to her, consistency in building a culture of integrity is necessary to break the chain of fraud that repeats itself every year.
“Supervisory measures and regulatory enforcement alone are evidently not enough. System improvements and consistently building a culture of integrity are essential to address the recurring allegations of fraud in new student admissions,” said MPR Deputy Speaker Lestari Moerdijat in a written statement on Monday (6/7).
Based on data compiled by the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI), a total of 301 public complaint reports were recorded during the 2026 SPMB process. This figure indicates that dissatisfaction and indications of irregularities remain very high on the ground.
The domicile or zoning pathway was the most vulnerable point, with 187 reports often related to the manipulation of population data to gain access to specific schools.
Lestari Moerdijat, familiarly known as Rerie, emphasised the need for integrated measures involving various agencies. As a member of House Commission X, she proposed several strategic points to reduce the rate of fraud.
For Rerie, technical system improvement is only one side of the coin. The other, more fundamental side is character building. Instilling integrity values from an early age is the primary foundation for building the character of the nation’s children as well as a long-term effort to prevent corruption.
Anti-corruption education in schools and at home must not be merely ceremonial or limited to memorising theory. It must be substantive, touching students’ moral awareness so that they grow into a generation that is resilient and courageous in rejecting all forms of cheating.
The senior official of the NasDem Party reminded that integrity is non-negotiable in the world of education. If the process of entering school is already initiated with dishonesty, then the moral quality of the future generation is at stake.
“Without integrity, the system of upbringing and education will only produce graduates who are academically intelligent but morally fragile,” she said.