Universities apply new system of admittance
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Completing their studies at high schools is not a guarantee that students will be able to go to universities, as the government is implementing a new system requiring students to pass the final national examinations to enable them to continue their education.
The final examinations started on Monday and would last until this weekend with some 135,000 high school students throughout the city participating.
Officials of several private universities stressed that they would not admit high school students who fail in the exams, even if they get a certificate mentioning that they have finished their high school studies.
"The university admittance requires the students to pass the final examinations as shown in the pass certificate. So, we won't accept them if they fail to come up with the pass certificate even if they have passed the university admission test," said Hasiyani H. Wahyono, spokesperson of Trisakti University.
Lidwina Maria, head of the Atmajaya Catholic University's academic administration bureau, stated the same.
"For those who have passed the admission test at the university, they could have the money refunded that they have paid," she said.
Hasiyani and Lidwina were commenting on the new policy of the Ministry of National Education that requires all high school students to pass the final examinations to continue their study to the university level.
According to the new policy, the student would receive two certificates upon their graduation. The first certificate indicates that the student has passed the final exams successfully and thus are entitled to a higher education.
The second certificate will only certify that the student has completed the study in the school. With the certificate, the student can apply for a job.
In order to obtain the pass certificate, the students must get at least 6.0 in average score of all subjects in their final test, and each score must be more than 3.0. The score scale is ranged between 0 and 10.
Before the national exams started, a number of universities had conducted the first round of the admission tests.
To those who have passed the admission test, but failed to submit the pass certificate, Hasiyani said, they could refund the money paid, but had to pay the administration fee.
Unlike last year's final exams, only three subjects of the exams, Math, English, and bahasa Indonesia, are prepared by the government, while the rest of the subjects were prepared by the schools themselves.
Ratiyono, the principal of the state high school 24 on Jl. Lapangan Tembak, Senayan, Central Jakarta, said on May 26, all schools must dispatch the samples of the final exams made by each school teacher to the City Education Agency for Junior and High School for evaluation.
"It will be judged whether or not their test materials are above or below the required standard," he said.
While the first day of the national exams in Jakarta seemed to run well, in Bogor, a 20-year-old student of Bina Warga vocational school was sent to the police as the teacher found five small packages of marijuana in his pocket.
The student was asked to show his examination card, but instead of showing the card, he unintentionally dropped the illicit substance from his pocket.
At the beginning, he told the police that the marijuana belonged to his friend, but he later admitted that he bought it from the dealer for Rp 10,000 per package and that he had used drugs since he was in junior high school.