Jakarta – The Religious Affairs Ministry has called on regions to adopt an official standardized exam for Islamic studies in schools.

The ministry's Islamic Education director Imam Tholhah said that introducing a standardized test would lend importance to the subject, which he added served as a tool to control students' behavior.

"Students tend to prioritize subjects tested in the national exam, so the Muslim students studying in regular schools only have minimum knowledge about their religion," Imam said.

He said that the National Education Ministry required that students be able to read the Koran in elementary school and understand the scripture's meanings when they were senior high students. "Only 55 percent of high school graduates cannot read the [Arabic] Koran," he said.

Imam said the test was not compulsory, and had not been adopted by all regions. Only 44 regencies adopted the test in 2009 when it was first introduced, and 144 regencies and municipalities by the end of 2010.

A standardized test requires 75 percent of its questions are written by teachers in the regions that have adopted the test while another 25 percent by a group of teachers appointed by the Religious Affairs Ministry.

Imam said his ministry had not made the test obligatory at all schools and in all regions because the religion is a sensitive issue in Indonesia, a home to many Islamic sects. However, not everyone is convinced the test does any good.

Abdul Mu'ti, the secretary of the central board of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second-largest Muslim organization, said that students would likely be inclined to study for the test to get good grades whether they believed in the material or not.

"The uniformity of religious understanding can be created through the test's questions because the test uses a multiple choice format where there is only one correct answer," Abdul said.

He said that Muhammadiyah, as an organization, was concerned that the test would prompt the need to have similar tests for all of the other religions recognized in Indonesia.

In Suara Muhammadiyah, the organization's publication, a Christian scholar, Benny Susetyo, said that the government's intention to standardize religious education was problematic. "Religious education is an experience-based journey, which cannot measured by formal standards," Benny said.

Supriyoko, the director of postgraduate studies at Yogyakarta-based Sarjanawiyata Tamansiswa University, said that Islamic school students would have an automatic advantage in taking the test. "The level of difficulty should be increased gradually from easiest for the non-Islamic school students," he said. (rcf)