Students in tsunami-ravaged Aceh sit their final exams

Students in tsunami-ravaged Aceh sit their final exams

The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh, Jakarta

With hundreds of schools still in ruins, many senior high school
students put the devastation of the Dec. 26 tsunami behind them
on Monday, turning up in Banda Aceh to take their national final
examinations.

At the SMU 1 senior high school in the city, a school only
partially damaged by the waves, at least 378 students began the
three days of examinations on Monday.

"There should have been 430 students taking part in these
examinations, but some of them died in the disaster," the
school's principal, Sanusi Harun, told The Jakarta Post.

The school lost 260 of its 1,132 students in the tsunami,
mostly those who lived nearby, Sanusi said.

It had taken in 40 new students whose schools were completely
destroyed by the tsunami, he said. Most of them were first and
second-year students from the Lhoknga, Leupung, Peukan Bada and
Lhoong districts.

"Only one student from another (destroyed) school is taking
part in the (final) examinations."

The tsunami is estimated to have caused Rp 1 trillion
(US$107.52 million) in damage to the education sector in the
province, destroying buildings, important documents and
specialized equipment and killing hundreds of teachers.

The bureaucratic nightmare of replacing school records is
currently underway, while letters of confirmation will be issued
in place of graduation certificates.

Aceh Education Office head Teuku Alamsyah Banta said there
were currently 126,000 students from the province taking part in
the national final exams. About 580 vocational school students
had to take their exams outside or in makeshift buildings because
their schools had been destroyed, he said.

"There are still around 1,000 students studying in tents in
places like Aceh Jaya and Simeulue," Teuku said.

Teuku said he could not predict how students would fare in the
examinations and how much the disrupting effect of the disaster
would end up affecting their marks.

"If this examination is done badly, we can repeat it again in
October," Teuku said.

Meanwhile, the nationwide examination this year did not
surprise high school students in Jakarta as the questions were
not much different to previous years.

"We have done several try-outs using previous tests and
today's test was similar," said Vindy, a student of SMU 34 senior
high school in South Jakarta.

The fact that this year's examination was not much different
to previous years raised criticism from experts. Last year, the
passing grade index was set at 4.01, while this year a student
must get an average of 4.26 to graduate from high school.

Director of Paramadina University's Institute for Educational
Reform, Hutomo Dananjaya, said the examination was a mere
"centralistic" policy to measure the country's educational
quality.

"There is a wide gap between schools in this country. The
government cannot use the same exam to decide passing students
from schools of different quality," he said.

He expressed fear that such exams would make both students and
teachers only pursue the required grade instead of attempting to
acquire a full comprehension of school subjects.

A member of the National Education Standardization Body, Seto
Mulyadi, admitted that the body, which was set up this year to
organize and oversee the national examinations, is not yet fully
operational.

"We will only monitor and then evaluate this year's exam," he
said. "And we'll also evaluate whether the raising of this year's
passing grade violates a child's basic rights."