Testing the diversity of local education

JAKARTA (JP): A quality but inexpensive education were among some of the reasons given by 11 foreign students, tucked away among more than 464,000 local students, taking the two-day state university entrance exams which ended on Wednesday.

The annual two-day nationwide exams are a significant event in the lives of most Indonesian high school graduates.

This year it was also a crucial two days for 11 foreign students, each vying for one of the 73,540 seats in 45 state universities.

Unknown to many, foreign students are also entitled to enroll at state universities in Indonesia and are given the same opportunities as local students.

The only additional requirement is that, if accepted, they submit an authorization letter from the Director General of Higher Education.

This year five foreign students come from Iran, five from Turkey, and one from Japan.

Last year there were three foreign students: two Iranians and a Korean.

Usually, most of the foreign students sitting the entrance exams are family members of the diplomatic corps posted here. This year, however, was an exception.

Only the five Iranians are affiliated with the diplomatic community. The Japanese student wanted to study Indonesian literature, while the Turkish students specifically came here to receive a good education.

Turks Serkan Karatas and Ramazan Gin, both 19, said that they were interested in studying in Indonesia because the tuition is inexpensive while the quality is relatively good.

The two added that Indonesia having a mainly Muslim population was also an important factor.

"We heard about it from our friends," Gin told The Jakarta Post when asked what prompted him to take the test here.

"We're not afraid of the social condition here, although it is unpredictable," Gin added, referring to the various security disturbances occurring in the country.

Both Gin and Karatas took an eight-month Bahasa Indonesia course in Yogyakarta.

During the exams on Tuesday and Wednesday, they received some supervision from the committee to help them better understand the questions.

According to Gin, the exams were relatively difficult, especially in Biology and Physics. He said the topics were more difficult compared to those he had studied in Turkey.

"Insya Allah (God willing), I will be accepted," said Gin, who enrolled for entry to the computer science faculty at the University of Indonesia (UI).

Karatas registered for industrial engineering and computer science at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.

They will know by the first week of August, when the exam results are announced, if their 9,100-kilometer journey from Turkey was worthwhile.

Besides the foreigners, handicapped and severely ill students were among the more extraordinary people participating in the national exams.

Suhairi, from SMU 40 in North Jakarta, took the exams with a catheter attached to his body. He had been involved in a motorcycle accident just weeks earlier.

Suhairi was left with no other option but to sit the exam, as there are no supplementary tests.

"I'm a bit dizzy, but who knows, I might pass the test," he said after taking the exam at UI's clinic in Salemba, Central Jakarta.

Among handicapped students taking the exams were 16 students in Bandung. Nine of them were blind.

Despite their physical challenges, it was obvious that nothing would deter them from their right to compete for a place in a state-run university.

There was no special treatment for them, all questions were exactly the same as other students.

However, some did need additional assistance, particularly the blind, as no test booklets had been prepared in braille.

The blind students were accompanied by two aides, one to read the questions and the other to write the student's dictated answer in the booklet.

The reader often had to repeat the questions several times due to the complicated nature of many topics.

One of the blind participants was Hasbullah, 24, who said that obtaining a law degree had been a life-long dream.

A native of Aceh, Hasbullah moved to Bandung in 1993 to attend a special school for the blind. Such a facility was unavailable in his home province at the time.

He claimed to have practiced listening to questions intensively for the past three months.

Another blind student, Imas Sukaesih, 21, said she found the questions particularly difficult to comprehend when they concerned mathematical diagrams.

A similar story of perseverance could also be found in Surabaya, where another blind student, Totok Riyanto, 20, also sat the exams.

"I've been preparing for this for a year," he said.

Totok said his ambition was to become a teacher for blind students.

"My father is a farmer and my mother a vegetable seller, so they have no money for me to continue my education," he said.

Totok secretly worked as a blind masseur until he had accumulated enough money to pay for his future education.

"It is my dream to enter a teachers' school for the blind," Totok said. (04/25/nur/hdn)