Arientha Primanita – City councilors on Wednesday admonished the Jakarta administration for the drop in passing rates for the national exam this year, adding pressure to overhaul its education programs.
Inggard Joshua, the council's deputy chairman, said the administration should take responsibility for the poor results and ensure improvements were made.
"There should be a mapping of areas that have low-graduation levels," he said. "The teaching process at schools and also teacher quality across the city must be re-evaluated."
Inggard, who is a member of the Golkar Party, said the capital should boast the best education in the country because its teachers have the highest salaries in the archipelago. However, with a pass rate this year of less than 91 percent, he said students in Jakarta performed poorly compared with nearby provinces.
In West Java, 97 percent of all high school students graduated. Some 96 percent of students passed in East Java, and 91 percent in Central Java.
According to the Jakarta Education Agency, 90.67 percent of high school students and 92.18 percent vocational school students passed their national examinations this year. The figures were down significantly from last year's rates of 96.5 percent and 97.65, respectively.
According to data from the Ministry of National Education, there were 10 schools in Jakarta where the entire student body failed the nationwide testing. The province with the highest number of schools with no students passing the tests was East Kalimantan with 39 schools.
Students who failed the national exams will be able to take a repeat test from May 10-14.
Iman Satria, a member of the Council's Commission E, which oversees welfare issues, said teachers, who were better paid than most other workers in the capital, were to blame for the poor results.
The councilor, who is from the Great Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra), said the city's education spending, which was Rp 5.46 trillion ($606 million), or 22 percent of the budget, should be examined thoroughly.
Meanwhile, Deputy Governor Prijanto said that he was also concerned about the sharp decline in passing rates. "If this was a competition, then I would be ashamed of the result," he said.
Prijanto said the city's education agency would analyze the results of the national exams and report back to the governor. Many factors, he said, need to be examined.
Separately, 22 representatives from the Jakarta Teachers Consultative Forum (FMGJ) demanded a 2010 gubernatorial decree on performance allowances be revised.
Retno Listyarti, coordinator for the group, said the performance allowance for teachers was not commensurate with those received by other civil servants.
Taufik Yudi Mulyanto, head of the Jakarta Education Agency, said teachers should not be distracted by the allowance issue because their pay was already higher than that given to most other civil servants.