Teachers advised not to use multiple choice test format

Teachers advised not to use multiple choice test format

JAKARTA (JP): Teachers should keep the use of multiple choice
tests to a minimum because of their inability to develop
responsibility, competency and personality, a senior government
official said yesterday.

"I propose this not because multiple choice tests are not good
enough but rather because it is not easy to make questions which
can really measure a student's competence," said Soedijarto, the
Ministry of Education and Culture's Director General for Informal
Education, Youth and Sports, at the graduation ceremony of the
Jakarta Teacher Training and Education Institute (IKIP).

Soedijarto, in his oration on The role of teachers in
improving human resources quality in Indonesia towards the free
market in the 21st century, pointed out that multiple choice
tests are unable to measure the various capabilities that
students are supposed to master.

Presently, a large proportion of mid-term and final
examinations given to elementary, junior and senior high school
students are multiple choice, on which a student only needs to
pick one answer out of the four or five provided.

Very few of the answers require writing short essays or even
filling in empty spaces.

Except for mass enrollment tests for universities, which have
to be very selective academically, Soedijarto said the use of
multiple choice tests should be strictly limited and given
together with other tests.

"I am asking prospective teachers to please, please refrain
from making multiple choice tests for their students," he said in
front of 1,396 graduates of the teacher training and education
institute.

Over 590 students graduated from IKIP's diploma course, 779
from the four-year degree (S1) program and 26 from postgraduate
(S2 and S3) programs.

Soedijarto said that studies have shown that students only
study what they feel will be emphasized on an evaluation or test.

"Therefore, I think it will be very difficult to achieve the
goal of education itself unless the evaluation system which is
applied in schools is relevant to that goal," he said.

The standard national evaluation (or final) examinations also
need revision, he said, "for the sake of the quality of national
education".

National evaluation exams, locally known as Ebtanas, only make
up a small percentage of a student's overall grade, which will
determine whether or not a student passes his or her last year of
elementary, junior or senior high school. (pwn)