T

he island's senior high schools and their students made a commendable achievement in the recent National Examinations, with 99.82 percent of the participating students successfully passing the exams, a senior official said.

"It is the highest passing percentage in the country," Bali Education, Youth and Sports agency head I Ketut Wija stated on Sunday.

Wija did not attempt to hide his joy, and said the final passing percentage might actually be higher than the current percentage.

"The percentage may be even higher because there several schools have not received their results yet."

Eight senior high schools, two of which are located in Denpasar, have not received their National Examination results yet.

"We expect the National Examinations' results for these schools will be announced on Sunday afternoon," Wija added.

Meanwhile, 98.02 percent of senior vocational schools passed the National Examinations, a slight 0.98 decrease compared to last year.

"Despite the decrease, the passing percentage of our senior vocational schools is still among the nation's best five," Wija added.

"For vocational schools, the results of the National Examinations must be combined with the results of the students' Productivity Evaluation, to determine whether a student passed or failed the final examinations."

He said his agency has sent the productivity results of hundreds of students to Jakarta to be processed by the National Education Ministry.

"These students performed poorly in the National Examinations, but the results of their productivity evaluation might change their final results."

As many as 26,775 senior high school students participated in the exam, but only 48 students failed.

"And even this small number could change, because we are currently processing the results of 19 out of those 48 students. There is a strong possibility that in the end, they will pass the National Examinations after all," he added.

Temporary National Examinations results show that every student at Bangli and Karangasem passed, in other words, a 100 percent score for both areas.

For Social Studies, the highest marks were achieved by students of Denpasar's SMA 3 senior high school, while the highest marks in Sciences were scored by students from Denpasar's SMA 1 senior high school.