Student faces uncertain future after failing exam
Student faces uncertain future after failing exam
Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura
The smiling face of 18-year-old Natalia Walela changes when asked
about her senior high school final exams.
Natalia is one of tens of thousands of students nationwide who
did not pass in the new examinations system, which requires
students to reach a minimum 4.26 grade out of a possible 10 in
each of five subjects to graduate. The students must repeat the
failed subjects later in August before they get a pass.
"I did not expect it. I thought that I would have passed the
exams as in general, I always produced good marks in the daily
tests," Natalia said on Saturday.
Natalia only failed one out of her five subjects, economics,
with a mark of 4.00.
When the exam results were announced, the eldest of three
children, was staying in her hometown in Kimbim Wamena, Jayapura.
She told her parents that she had completed each exams and was
confident she would get through. However, when she returned to
Jayapura to see her marks, she was disappointed.
Natalia's parents are farmers and the student is dead-set on
pursuing higher education and getting a professional job. Her
parents have supported her dream and have enrolled Natalia in a
Catholic student dormitory for young women in Jayapura to help
her study.
Sisters at the dormitory guide and encourage their students to
study harder as well as teaching them religious subjects.
Each month, Natalia's parents pay enrollment fees of Rp
250,000 (US$26) and school fees of Rp 95,000.
Natalia says the cost of her studies, a lot for a working
class farming family, meant her parents were upset when they
found out she had failed.
"At first, my father was really mad. But later on he
understood my situation and encouraged me to study harder in
order to pass economics," Natalia said.
Natalia was also upset. She had imagined herself in a
backpack, jeans and a casual shirt talking with other university
students at a Jayapura campus this year.
She is now waiting for Aug. 22 when she can repeat the exam.
"I will certainly work hard, so I can get through," she said.
And like many young women, who want to lead independent lives,
Natalia has another reason why she wants to go to university.
"If I fail again in the exam and cannot graduate from senior
high school, I am afraid that my parents will marry me to a young
man they have chosen."
Most young women in her age in Jayapura had already married
and had children, she said.