Jakarta (Koran Tempo) – Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim announced that he plans to review the relevance of continuing the National Exam (UN). The announcement received many support from the education sector.

Expert on education from the Center of Education Regulation and Development Analysis, Indra Charismiadji said that the concept of a national exam has failed its purpose to be the benchmark in determining a student's quality.

"A national exam is similar to a broken scale that is unable to gauge the person's quality," said Indra to Koran Tempo, on Wednesday, November 27, 2019.

Ade Erlangga Masdiana from the Education Ministry's communication bureau said the national exam will continue as usual in 2020, but hints that it will not be the same in 2021. However, Ade refused to reveal what would serve as alternative to the national exams in the future.

Moreover, Indra said determining a person's education level should not only be measured by numbers that the students achieved, but also how the education helped the student in being creative. Indra asserted that by doing this, both teachers and students will be able to include school projects as as their portfolio.

"Other countries have erased standardized tests such as the national exam. This is the portfolio era," said Indra.

Just two weeks after being appointed as Education Minister, Nadiem Makarim intends to evaluate the concept of the national exam. This also comes as an answer to President Jokowi's instructions to revamp Indonesia's education curriculum.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1277705/support-flows-as-nadiem-makarim-plans-to-erase-national-exams