Government officials claim the national examinations for high school students this year ran better than those of last year, despite hundreds of students having results deemed invalid.
"There have been changes to the national examinations. We see that the examination process has improved compared to last year," Mansyur Ramli, the head of the research and development division at the National Education Ministry said in Jakarta on Friday.
On the last day of the examinations for high school students, officials declared that all of the students in SMA Teladan Indrapura and SMAN 2 in Medan, North Sumatra, who had to sit "replacement exams".
"The examination results for these two schools are indeed not valid," Djaali from the National Education Standard Body (BNSP) said.
The scanning of the schools' results revealed that students had apparently followed a similar pattern in answering the questions of three subjects: Indonesian, sociology and biology.
Mansyur said the students had also been caught with what appeared to be answers to test questions in cellular phones and on sheets of paper.
As a result, more than 500 students would take "replacement exams" on April 5.
Mansyur said the ministry would take stern measures against students where only a few students were caught cheating, but in this case the whole class gave a similar pattern of answers.
Mansyur said the ministry did not want to inflict agony on the students.
Around 40 students, 20 from SMKN 1 Bali vocational school and 20 from SMK Nusa Dua vocational school in West Lombok, should take a "repeat exams" because they had been given the wrong papers.
"That was purely a mistake of the executors, and not the participants," Djaali said.
The students, who took the tourism course, received test papers on accountancy and engineering subjects. They are scheduled to have a repeat test on March 29.
"Last year, students from 19 high schools and 19 junior high schools had to repeat exams," Mansyur said, emphasizing the improvements to the processes this year.
However, he said there were several other schools that were under investigation, which could lead to further tests.
Djaali said the "repeat" and "replacement" exams would be different papers. Djaali said the level of difficulty for these exams would be equal to the originals.
This year's problems had mostly stemmed from processes in the printing company and in supervision at schools, he said.
Some activists have criticized the government for insisting in carrying out the national examinations, claiming that the examinations expose students to unnecessary stress.
Teachers were also often seen as victims, burdened with the pressure of their students' possible failure.
However, this year the victims had not only been teachers.
Mansyur said on Tuesday, the second day of the examination, Delvi Napitupulu, a lecturer in Medan who is also the coordinator of the education entities monitors, had fallen off a motorcycle as she attempted to fight off a bag snatcher on another motorcycle. Her bag contained the test papers.
The 60-year-old woman is now still in a coma because she hit her head in the fall, Mansyur said. (dis)
