M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Dozens of teachers complained to the House of Representatives on Thursday that local officials had intimidated them after they uncovered ugly truths behind the national exam.

The teachers claimed they were dismissed, threatened or jailed for exposing cheating and other illicit practices involving principals and government officials during the exam in May.

"In Garut, West Java, for instance, teachers, parents and students who filed police reports about the cheating were treated like criminals. Some of them were put behind bars for three months," Ade Irawan of Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) told a hearing of House Commission X on education and culture.

ICW collaborated with the teachers on an investigation of illicit practices during the exam. Their report found that in major cities like Jakarta, Tangerang, Depok, Bogor, Bandung, Medan and Makassar, teachers were involved in leaking answers in advance of the exams.

A number of tactics were allegedly employed by the teachers, including using Short Message Service (SMS) or simply distributing a copy of the answers.

The teachers said the Garut administration was directly involved in raising its students' scores out of the belief that a high percentage of students graduating with good grades would help boost the regency's image.

The report alleged the regency threatened high school principals with dismissal if they failed to improve students' grades. It found school staffers bowed to the pressure and inflated the students' scores.

Some teachers later filed complaints about their treatment with the Inspectorate General of the National Education Ministry. The report said despite evidence of rampant cheating, a team from the ministry claimed to have found few irregularities.

Members of House Commission X said the teachers' complaints would make it difficult for the House to authorize a nationwide exam for 2007.

"The policy of holding a national exam contradicts the national education system," House Commission X member Masduki Baidowi of the National Awakening Party commented, saying the system specified that education would be left in the hands of individual schools and teachers.

Baidowi said Commission X would try to persuade the House budget committee not to fund the national exam.

National Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo has said that the future of the national exam depends on the verdict of a class action lawsuit in Jakarta filed by students who said they were victimized by the exams.