Anita Rachman – Lawmakers on Friday backed a Supreme Court decision urging the Ministry of National Education to improve school facilities and teachers' skills before conducting the national examinations next year.

The ministry insisted on Thursday that the Supreme Court's verdict did not say there was a need to cancel the exams and that it was considering filing a judicial review.

Heri Akhmadi, deputy chairman of House of Representatives Commission X, which is tasked to oversee education, said the ministry needed to carry out the court's ruling.

"[The ministry] should not hold the national examinations next year. The quality of schools and teaching is still in a mess," Heri told the Jakarta Globe. "

Around 37 percent of elementary schools and less than half of junior high schools across Indonesia have libraries, and only one out of five teachers were certified, Heri said.

But Education Minister Mohammad Nuh appeared unperturbed, saying the ministry would still administer the exams in 2010. "Nothing in the verdict says the government should altogether cancel the exams," Nuh said on Thursday night.

He added that the call to reform the national education system was something "the ministry has been doing for the last three years."

"We haven't received a copy of the verdict yet. As soon as we receive one, we will study it," Nuh said. "There is still a chance for us to file a judicial review.

Rully Chairul Azwar, another deputy chairman of Commission X, said there was nothing wrong with the national test but protested that as long as schools throughout the country did not receive the same quality of education, it would not be fair to require students to take the standardized exams.

"The government cannot insist on conducting the exams if they continue to defy the law," Rully said.

The commission is expected to summon ministry officials, and possibly Nuh, next week, Rully said.

The Supreme Court ruling, which was made on Sept. 14 but announced only on Tuesday, was the latest step in a legal process that began in 2007, when a group of students and parents filed a lawsuit against the government at the Central Jakarta District Court, seeking to eliminate the national exams.

Heri said a judicial review of the case could be set at another time, but it was important that the ministry immediately implement the Supreme Court's decision.

"Why should [the ministry] force these exams on the students? Conducting another round of these national tests would be counterproductive," Heri said.

"Besides, the credibility of the exams is flawed. We also know that rampant cheating continues to happen during the exams," he said.