E

ven though many demand an end to the national exams (UN), the government resists.

Others believe the exams are an indicator of knowledge and competency in students. The national exams push Indonesian students to learn autonomously. They can produce bright pupils ready to compete in the 21st century.

However, Indonesian education nowadays makes no sense and there are several problems with the quality of education and morality.

First, we have cheating and dishonesty. Although the government guarantees there will be no leaks of exam-question lists, students still identify the barcodes and buy the answers.

How can they recognize the barcodes? Before doing the test, they match the answer key to the question they have to answer. There are two tricks to identifying the problems without viewing the barcode. They can see the answer key based on the clues given.  

No wonder it's hard to eliminate corruption in Indonesia. Ninety percent of high school graduates take academic fraud for granted and gradually, it has become part of Indonesian culture.

Second, this situation only fosters the lowest thinking skill ' memorization. Despite the national exams already running for 10 years and the government saying that they have raised the quality of education, things do not improve.

According to the Education and Culture Ministry, Indonesian students undertaking three assessments ' reading, math and science ' only achieved a score of 400, whereas the international standard is 500.  The national exams only produce learners that are likely to be clever at memorizing or answering multiple choice questions.

Third, it puts aside the learning process. As stated by Ki Hajar Dewantara, 'children live and grow in line with their own nature. Educators can only take good care and nurture the growth of their nature.' The founding father's statement is also in line with not only the multiple intelligence theory proposed by Howard Gardner but also the principles of progressivism in education.

However, it looks poles apart from government policy nowadays, since whatever the nature of children, as well as their specialties, they must pass the exam. Otherwise, it can spell disaster.

Fourth, creativity is stifled. The negative impacts of the exams concern Romo Mudji Sutrisno. He questioned how students could be measured by existing options in the national exams. He reckoned that multiple choice questions undermined creative, critical thinking. What's more, he said critical thinking was an indicator of educational success.

The government is creating problems for the country if it turns a blind eye to the standard of education and morality. To alleviate corruption in the future, good moral values should be imparted.

Advanced thinking skills need developing at an early age, the learning process is more important than the result and the government should place great emphasis on creativity and critical thinking.

 
Ronaldi
Jakarta