Jakarta – More than 1 million high school students across the country began taking the national exams that kicked off on Monday with some schools reporting delays caused by poor infrastructure.

One of them was the Kelua State High School in Tabalong regency in South Kalimantan, which was forced to halt the examinations for about 15 minutes because the electricity went out. Several schools in the area were holding the computer-based tests on the first day.

"We used the school's power generator to reconnect to the server but it took time. Everything went back to normal after 15 minutes when the electricity came back on," Kelua State High School principal Wagimin said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Kelua was one of the 9,652 schools that arranged the computer-based test on Monday. According to the Education and Culture Ministry, 1.1 million students sat for the test. Meanwhile, 667,741 students from 10,905 schools participated in paper-based examinations on the same day.

The ministry's head of education assessment center, Nizam, expressed confidence that this year's national exam would run smoothly without fraud, unlike in previous years. "But we must remain alert. The minister has threatened to severely punish teachers who are involved in any fraud." (msa/wit)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/04/10/blackouts-hamper-exams-for-high-school-students.html