T

he Culture and Primary and Secondary Education Ministry has found in its probe that national exam material leaks were not widespread as they only affected students in Aceh and Yogyakarta.

Culture and Primary and Secondary Education Minister Anies Baswedan said that an investigation conducted by the ministry found that a barcode attached on the leaked exam materials indicated that they were intended for students in Aceh, which were similar to materials for students in Yogyakarta.

'€œThe materials uploaded to Google Drive were for natural sciences [IPA] students in Aceh,'€ he said at a press conference at the ministry'€™s office in South Jakarta.

The ministry announced on Wednesday that 30 out of 11,730 exam material packages nationwide were uploaded online to Google Drive. The national exam documents were reportedly available online for three days, from Saturday to Monday, before being deleted by Google following a request from the ministry.

The Federations for ndonesian Teachers Association (FSGI) said earlier that it had received reports from students who said the leaked materials had reached a high number of students.

Since the discovery of the leaks, the ministry has asked for assistance from the National Police'€™s detective division, which immediately conducted a raid at the suspected printing company in Central Jakarta and confiscated several pieces of evidence including a CPU, scanner and CCTV security camera.

Anies said the ministry would wait for the exam results from Aceh and Yogyakarta to determine whether it was necessary for students in the two provinces to retake the exams.

Anies said that based on early results from Yogyakarta, there was nothing to indicate that students had resorted to systematic cheating.

'€œThis is a challenge for Yogyakarta, especially, since it has had one of the highest integrity scores for the last four years,'€ he said.

Anies also questioned the motives of those who leaked the materials, as they were uploaded for free download instead of distributed for profit.

Meanwhile, Nizam, the head of the ministry'€™s Educational Evaluation Center (Puspendik), defended the ministry'€™s policy of having identical exam materials in more than one area.

'€œOnly provinces that are far apart have the same questions, such as Aceh and Yogyakarta. Provinces that are near each other, such as Aceh and North Sumatra, have different exam materials,'€ he said.

Nizam declined to say how many versions of exam materials were available.

The ministry is expected to announce next week the results of the national exam as well as the integrity index, which measures honesty in the exam.

Following the exam material leaks, the ministry has also stepped up security at printing presses assigned to print exam materials for junior high school students, who are expected to take their final exams in May.

Nizam said the ministry was relying on the National Police to secure the process.

He also said the ministry could not cut its contract with printing firms alleged to have played roles in this week'€™s leaks.

'€œIt'€™s impossible for us to assign new printing companies to do the job since we'€™re racing against time and some of the companies have already started printing the materials for junior high schools,'€ he said.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Charliyan said that investigators had not named anyone a suspect in the case.

'€œWe are still investigating the case and questioning witnesses,'€ he said. (alm)