T

echnical problems have disrupted computer-based national exams for junior high school students, which started on Monday.

Islamic junior high school Madrasah Tsanawiyah Hidayatul Mubtadi’in in Malang, East Java, was among the schools affected by the technical glitches.

Principal Alif Masbukin said server outages caused the exams to begin an hour late.

“We anticipated such technical disruptions,” said Alif. He said the exams were taken in three batches until 3 p.m.

Server outages also delayed the exams in Central Java’s Semarang regency on Monday. A total of 170 junior high schools and 35 madrasah tsanawiyah (Islamic junior high schools) — both public and private — are holding computer-based national exams, with a total of 23,977 students taking the four-day exams.

Semarang Mayor Hendrar Prihadi said he received reports on the server disruptions. “Hopefully everything can be handled well.”

A lack of computers hampered the exams in nearby Sragen regency on Tuesday, forcing 42 junior high schools and madrasah tsanawiyah to either borrow computers from high schools in the regency, or host the exams for their students at high schools with proper facilities.

“It is also the first time for these schools to run the computer-based exams,” Sragen Education Agency head Suwardi said on Tuesday.

The 42 schools used paper-based exams in the past.

Some of the schools provided transportation for their students to reach the high schools where they took the tests.