T

he Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education Ministry has claimed that the computer-based version of the national exam (CBT) that was introduced to junior high school and high school students this year was a success despite the technical glitches.

The ministry'€™s head of the Educational Evaluation Center (Puspendik), Nizam, said that although the ministry had yet to conduct a formal evaluation of this year'€™s national exams, the CBT'€™s success was encouraging.

'€œFrom data we have gathered so far, 99 percent of the schools that used the CBT approved of the method. Based on this, we hope more schools will choose the CBT next year,'€ he said.

This year, more than 7.3 million students from 79,429 high, junior high and vocational schools participated in the national exams in April and May.

This year was also the first time 42 junior high schools and 514 high schools offered the CBT, which the ministry touted as more efficient and less prone to leaks, which frequently occurred in previous years.

Students at some schools were divided into three shifts to take the exams to accommodate the fact that the schools did not have enough computers for students to take the exams simultaneously. Although it was not compulsory, many schools that conducted the CBT had back-up generators in case of a blackout.

Although the ministry originally said that around 800 schools had registered to offer the CBT when it was first announced earlier this year, Nizam acknowledged that many schools opted to drop out after they conducted several test runs.

Nizam said many schools that offered the CBT had reported that their students felt more at ease taking their exams on the computer and recommended it to other schools.

Proctors also felt that it was easier to supervise the exam sessions since the Internet was inaccessible; students could only access the exam questions, he said.

'€œThere were no problems with the CBT based on reports from schools and the ministry'€™s monitoring team. We found that there were zero leaks with the CBT,'€ Nizam explained.

'€œHonestly, our current infrastructure actually allows more schools to offer the CBT.'€

Although the ministry may not have found any leaks from the CBT, several schools nationwide were faced with technical errors that hindered their students'€™ ability to take the exams.

The SMK 3 vocational high school in Jayapura, Papua, encountered Internet problems on the first day of the high school exams last month, which forced the students to take the exams an hour later than scheduled as the exam questions could not be downloaded.

The CBT exam at SMA Cendana high school and the state high school SMAN 8 in Pekanbaru, Riau, were also momentarily disrupted by a disconnection from the central server in Jakarta.

Meanwhile, Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Anies Baswedan claimed that reports of cheating had decreased drastically this year compared to previous years.

'€œHowever, out of 534 regencies and cities in Indonesia, there were still several reports of cheating that piqued our attention. Although the reports have decreased significantly, we can never be satisfied,'€ he said, adding that all the reports would be followed up by the ministry.

One of the most significant leaks reported this year was that paper-based exam materials for high school students in Yogyakarta and Aceh were uploaded onto Google Drive the weekend before the exams started in mid-April. Currently the National Police is investigating the alleged crime but have yet to name anyone a suspect.

Anies expressed his appreciation to the National Police for their efforts and encouraged the public to report any suspicions of foul play.