Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) legislator Heri Akhmadi said a more difficult exam or a lack of preparation could have contributed to the setback.

"But we cannot determine the exact reasons yet. The government needs to figure out the reasons as soon as possible," the commission deputy told The Jakarta Post.

The National Education Ministry earlier announced that this year's graduation rate was 89.88 percent, down from last year's 95.05 percent. Up to 154,000 students across Indonesia will have to sit remedial exams in May.

In North Sumatra, 8 percent of the examination participants failed, most of them students of vocational schools (SMK). In Gorontalo, 53 percent of all participants passed, meaning that 3,308 students will have to sit the remedial exams.

The official announcement of results of the national examinations will be made on Monday.

Despite the government's claim that the national examinations were a success this year, many have voiced doubts regarding the credibility of the results.

Heri said the results of the examinations were not in line with Rp 506 billion (US$56.2 million) the government had spent on them.

"The credibility of the result is still questionable concerning many reports of leaks," he said.

The examination could not represent the quality of students' education because it only covered a few subjects and did not take into account moral or ethical variables, he said.

"It's not only the national examination that can represent the quality of our education," he said.

Heri said his commission at the House of Representatives had agreed to increase the budget for the National Education Ministry to evaluate the education examination system.

"We had increased the budget to Rp 15 billion from the Rp 10 billion they proposed," he said, adding that the commission expected the evaluation to improve the system to measure the quality of the education system.

Education expert Arif Rahman said the national examination required improvement, particularly concerning the standard of graduation which was presently only determined by the government.

"School principals must have authority to determine the graduation of students," he said.

Regarding the increase in students who failed the tests, he said that there was no single factor that had caused it.

"It may have been the tighter supervision or because the quality of this year's students is below last year's," he said. (rdf)

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