Universities apply new system of admittance

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.