National Examination Starts Amid Calls Against Cheating

High school students throughout the country on Monday began to undergo a four-day final national examination (UAN) amid calls against cheating and examination material leaks.

Education Minister Muhammad Nuh said over the weekend the national examination would be held as scheduled, namely beginning on Monday as all the test papers had been delivered to all high schools in the country.


The education ministry was reported to be continuously communicating with heads of provincial education agencies about the distribution of the test papers and the implementation of the final examination, he said.

According to Nuh, students who failed the present national exam could take another test one month later. He also said the possibility of irregularities such as cheating and test material leaks prior to the implementation of the exam had been minimized.

The implementation of the national examination throughout the country was still seen as having some weaknesses and being in violation of the principle of justice due to the application of minimal standard for passing, a professor at the Jakarta State University (UNJ), Arief Rahman, said.

\Again, the national examination implemented simultaneously by the government on March 22, 2010 at hih schools across the country had actually made educational activists and observers confused as the Supreme Court`s decision has banned the use of the national exam as a measurement of final evaluation. It meant that the government had violated the law.

A policy to implement the national exams was counterproductive to pro-status quo which had rejected national exams on the ground that a controversy on national exams was a "neoliberal product", he said.

\In addition, old date problems which have "well-organized cheating" involving teachers, head-teachers, and local governments that happened in the previous national examination really remained unsolved. "It is not merely about getting better marks to pass the exam anymore, but is a morality concern," he said.

It is extremely dreadful when a group of `honorable people` like teachers, head-teachers, and other education-related officials planned such a dirty thing. There must have been something very big causing this systematic cheating. Some people state that national examination`s burden is so hard and difficult for teachers and students to cope that they took `an alternative way by cheating.

Some others argue that teachers do not work seriously for the exam because UN is not consistent with the National Education System Act 2003 (Sisdiknas). Worse, school principals, teachers and students, work `collaboratively` in the exam because it is permitted by the local government to boost `the quality` of students in the area.

Therefore, three problems are identified in the national examination; organized cheating, the government`s inconsistency, and local governments` ambition.

However, such the leakage of exam papers were often reported to have occurred in some regions despite the government`s promise to increase security measures. Reports of cheating during the exam were made in at least four regions.

In North Sumatra, 17 teachers, including the principal, at a high school in Deli Serdang regency in last year`s final exams were named as suspects after local police caught them in the act of correcting their students` answer sheets.

In Surakarta, Central Java, the Independent Watchdog Team found answer keys to English and chemistry tests in four cell phones belonging to students.

In Riau, a teacher, who asked not to be named, told the press leaks of exam answer keys were organized by a group of five high school principals and a number of teachers in Selatpanjang district.

In Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, a number of teachers allegedly helped their students on the exams by sending answers to their cell phones by SMS.

Cheating will likely emerge again this year despite the increased security measures, head of the Education Assessment Center at the Education Ministry, Burhanuddin Tolla, said.

"Viewed from any ideological, religious and moral values cheating is wrong. Cheating is similar to stealing, taking other belongings without permission. Cheating, then, is unacceptable whatever the reasons are. It is an act of `deceiving somebody, especially for personal advantage", he said.

It means that cheating is not only about taking a personal advantage but at the same time harming others as well. Giving help to others is morally acceptable. However, giving help to do bad things, such as cheating, is a different matter. It can also be categorized as cheating it self. What teachers did in helping students to answer the test in the national examination can not be categorised as a good thing, although it might give good impact to students and schools.

However, no exam papers were leaked at the central and provincial levels, including by printing offices, he said.

"The misbehavior took place in the schools. After receiving the exam papers, they must have made the answer key quickly and distributed it to students.

"Our independent watchdog team seemed unable to control this," was quoted by the Jakarta Post last week. The government had prepared supplementary exams in the event of cheating or leaks.

Burhanuddin said those found guilty of aiding cheating or leaks would be punished to "teach them a good lesson" and to deter similar cases in the future.

Education experts Soedijarto and Mochtar Buchori said cheating would continue as long as the government continued to use the "high-standard national exam" to determine whether students could graduate while there remained large disparities among students in term of academic competency.

Mochtar said there needed to be serious efforts to improve the quality of disadvantaged schools before the national exam could apply.

Soedijarto said there should be better entrance tests for high schools with specialist study programs, as well as supplementary exams for those who fail the final exam.

Chairman of the Indonesian National Committee for UNESCO, Arief Rahman, said earlier this week that before the national final exam, there should have been preliminary tests to map academic competencies across regions.

"I agree with the national exam, but it should take into consideration the capacity of each region," Arif Rahman said.




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