No prom night for 19 high schools this year

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 06/02/2009 2:05 PM  |  Headlines

Students from 19 senior high schools will not be able to hold a graduation party this year because all of their students failed to pass the National Exams.

The House of Representatives revealed this shocking fact on Monday, saying the schools were located in various regions such as South Sumatra, Bengkulu, West Nusa Tenggara and West Java.

"Based on our investigation, the zero percent passing rate happened because the students tried to cheat on the exams," deputy chairman of House Commission X for education, Heri Akhmadi, told a press conference in Jakarta.

"They tried to look for the answers prior to the test and, apparently, managed to find them."

However, Heri said, the answers they found for the test they took were all wrong.

"Therefore, none of the students of those schools managed to pass the test," he said.

"What is even more surprising is one of the schools is an internationally standardized school."

Heri said this incident showed cheating on exams was massive, systematic and organized.

"The incident has degraded the value of and the confidence in the exam results," he said.

Heri also said he was surprised the National Education Standard Agency's decided the exams would be rescheduled, especially for the 19 high schools.

"Not only is that decision against the law because there are no provisions about sitting tests twice in our regulations, but it is also unfair, especially for the students who sat the exams honestly," he said.

"The main question now is how many students managed to get hold of the right answers *before the exams*?

"We may now have identified the students who failed to get the right ones, but what about the others?

"If they managed to get hold of the right answers, how are we suppose to evaluate their educational achievements?"

The National Education Ministry's Director of Senior High Schools, Sungkowo, said he doubted the veracity of the mass failure report.

"Where did they get the data? The standard agency has yet to inform us about exam results, let alone inform the House," he said.

"The information is possibly incorrect. We will have to wait until the exam results' official announcement on June 16."

The ministry said the National Exams had proven effective to raise the students' standard and the number of students who passed the exam.

However, the constant leaking of answers, especially nearing the days of the National exams, has raised many questions about the quality and validity of students who managed to pass the exam.

According to education experts, the schools themselves might have been the ones leaking the answers.

"Those are unreliable statistics because in reality, students may have cheated to pass the exam, some even with the help of their teachers," Education coalition coordinator Lody Paat said recently.

Senior high school students sat their four-day national exams on April 21.

This year, the ministry increased the passing grade for every subject tested, from 5.25 in 2008 to 5.50 in 2009. Around 2.2 million senior high school students took part in the national exams across the country. (hdt)

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