Students damage school after flunking exams

TIMIKA: State high school SMA Tiga Raja in Timika, Papua, was damaged Wednesday by seven students and their equally ignorant parents in protest at their failing the recent national exams.

The students demanded that a makeup equivalency exam, or Package C test program, be held within the month for students who failed the exams.

The students, among 15 failing students out of the school's 95 students in total, had previously approached Yohanes Napan, their teacher, on Tuesday to voice similar demands.

"A group of students asked whether the certificate from the equivalency test could be accepted at universities," Napan said.

He added the students had previously been informed about this issue by school principal Yohanes Pramana.

But they remained disappointment, breaking windows at the school building before finally leaving.

Napan also said the students had threatened him and other teachers, as well as Pramana, if the certificates they would get from the test were not accepted at any university. - JP