Teachers should evaluate students

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