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All work, no play: Twelfth-graders study hard to get into state universities
Spending most of their final year of high school studying, students are typically expected to regularly attend private tutoring sessions and subscribe to online learning platforms. The pressure is high because of the tough competition to get into top state universities.
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Better together: Students of SMA Taman Siswa state senior high school in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, study together to prepare for the national exams. (Warta Kota/Angga Bhagya Nugraha)
N
aufal Mahardika leaves for school at 5:30 a.m. every day to attend classes that start at 6:30 a.m. and end at 3 p.m. The twelfth-grader at SMA 78 state high school in Jakarta then takes a short break before attending a private tutoring program that starts at 4:30 p.m.
By 8 p.m. he heads back home after a day of studying but still has to stay up to finish his homework. In his free time, he studies via online learning platforms to prepare for important exams.
All of this is done to give himself the best chance at being accepted to a state university.
Naufal is not the only final-year student who endures long study hours – his schoolmates have equally packed schedules.
Spending most of their final year of high school studying, they are all expected to regularly attend afterschool private tutoring and subscribe to online learning platforms. The pressure is high because of the tough competition to get into state universities.
“There are a lot of competitors. [The universities] we are aiming for are not the easy ones. Students from last year’s batch [from my school] were able to achieve high scores. I often think, ‘Can I do that?’ Moreover, we don’t only focus on our university entry test, but there is also the national examination,” Keisya Adiva Irsyanda told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Keisya said even at the private tutoring agency she signed up for, the pressure to perform was high. The agency conducts routine “tryouts” or test exams in which students can test their abilities. They are called tryouts because, if students do not fare well, they are not allowed to take the next test exam.
