Teachers should evaluate students

JAKARTA: Teachers had the right to assess students' performances and the graduation standard should not be imposed from outside by the Ministry of National Education, House Speaker Akbar Tandjung said on Monday.

However, education minister Abdul Malik Fajar said the final examinations would go ahead as planned. This means any student scoring less than a grade point average (GPA) of four in the exams -- one point higher than last year's passing grade of three -- would not be able to continue their education.

Akbar said while it was important to set a standard for students to reach, it should not be imposed from above by the ministry.

"I hope the arguments for and against how the final examination is run can be settled amicably, because it is the student's right to education that is at stake," Akbar said.

The ministry drafts tests for three subjects -- English, Maths and Bahasa Indonesia -- while schools create tests for rest.

Teachers have protested against the policy raising the GPA, instituted in the form of a ministerial decree, which they say contravenes Law No. 20/2003 on national education. The law rules student evaluations must be conducted by teachers.

Students of schools from Indonesia's biggest Muslim organization, Nadhlatul Ulama, recently joined teachers' protests to demand the decree be revoked. -- JP