D

espite a school informing a female senior high school student that she had failed her national exam, she was told on Thursday that she had miraculously passed it.

SMA 15 senior high school informed Gita Saraswati of her new found pass grade after the girl and her mother told reporters about irregularities surrounding the failure.

'It was after the news about the irregularity was published today [Thursday] that the school contacted me to tell me I had passed. Had the media failed to publish my report, I might still not pass,' Gita told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Gita said she knew something was awry because that during the exam she had been able to answer all of the questions. She added that she was the only student who did not pass the exam and had achieved high marks in all subjects except Indonesian.

'I did not believe I had only scored 0.80 for Indonesian because I was able to do it well,' added Gita.

After the report was run by a number of local newspapers in Medan, Gita was informed of her school's change of heart.

SMA 15 vice principal Testa Lumbangaol told the Post on Thursday that Gita had passed the exam and denied that the result was influenced by media reports.

'This morning the provincial education agency told the school Gita had passed the exam, so we conveyed this to her,' Lumbangaol told the Post, adding that the school was just an exam coordinator, while the Education Ministry determined the scores and graduation limit.

He said that Gita's score for Indonesian was actually 7.80, which means she passed the exam.

The North Sumatra Education Agency initially announced that 4,564 of the total 82,425 national exam participants did not pass the exam this year before correcting the number of non-performers to 291 students.