T

he Education and Culture Ministry considers transforming the national senior high school exams into online tests following distribution delays of this year's test materials and allegations of widespread leaking.

Deputy Education and Culture Minister for Education Musliar Kasim said on Saturday the plan was feasible since the ministry was able to conduct online tests for teachers.

'The teacher competency exams use an online system. It is feasible to implement the system for high school exams. This system would also help us to reduce costs,' he told The Jakarta Post.

The deputy minister said the online system could be implemented next year. The ministry, he said, would test the system in this year's semester exams for high school students. He said for schools that did not have computers, their students could take the tests in another school. 'I believe every district has schools equipped with computers. The students could take turns taking the exams.'

The ministry spent Rp 644 billion (US$65.6 million) conducting national exams ' for senior and junior high schools ' this year.

NGOs and parents of students grouped under the Education Coalition raised concerns the online exams would lead to more problems.

'Just take a look at the 2012 online teacher competency exams. We found many problems there. A number of participants could barely access the Internet. Some exams contained errors,' Retno Listyarti from the Indonesian Teachers Union Federation said on Saturday.   

Siti Juliantari Rachman from Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) doubted the online system would be able to prevent the leaking of exam papers as happened this year.  

'This year, the ministry made 20 types of exams to avoid leaks. Yet, we found many leaking cases. How can the ministry stop this if those who leak the exams are insiders,' she said.

The ministry has been in the spotlight for its failure to provide materials for the high school exams on time. The late distribution of documents caused delays in the exams in 11 out of the nation's 34 provinces.

An internal investigation concluded that that managerial errors and tardy budget disbursement were the major causes of the delays.

Education and Culture Minister Mohammad Nuh, however, said on Thursday the problems did not impede the exams, as 99.48 percent of over 1.5 million high school students passed. The figure is a slight decrease from last year's 99.5 percent.

However, critics have raised doubts over the exam results' validity, citing a series of leaks and instances of cheating during the tests.