Jakarta – Clad in uniforms sprayed with various colors, high school seniors paraded around throughout the country on Monday to celebrate passing the national exam this year.
From sharia-governed Lhokseumawe, Aceh, to artsy Yogyakarta, seniors exploded with jubilation after the anxiety of preparations and the test-taking days last month.
"All of the students at my school graduated. We are very happy after the hard time with so many extra lessons for the exam," former student of vocational school SMK 60 in West Jakarta and now proud graduate, Yuliana, said. She said the results were a major relief after this year's tight supervision, with CCTVs monitoring the exams.
Following years of criticism for its punitive nature of failing students, the National Education Ministry introduced significant reforms to the national exam this year, with new criteria for graduation and tougher security measures.
The exam is no longer the sole factor for a student to graduate. A student's final grade is now determined by their school's final exams and the national exam.
The results this year for senior high and Islamic school students increased to 99.22 percent, from 99.04 percent last year. Bali had the highest passing rate of 99.96 percent, whereas East Nusa Tenggara scored the lowest with 94.43.
Teachers said that the new formula was very helpful. "There is a student who scored below 4.00 in the national exam, but after calculating the school's grades, the student fulfilled the requisites to graduate," state high school SMA 65 in Jakarta principal Danimar said.
Indonesian Teachers Association research and development division head Mohammad Abduhzen said he doubted the credibility of school grades.
"I would be very glad if the passing rate was calculated only from the national exam score. But, in fact, it is not as it includes school grades, which are very high. I myself do not believe that 90 percent of students nationwide have school grades above seven," he said. "Of course, there are many students who have good grades, but the percentage couldn't be that high," Abduhzen said.
According to figures released Friday by the National Education Ministry, almost all grade averages of national exams in provinces are lower than the regions' school exams. In the case of East Kalimantan, the region had an average grade of 8.05 while the national exam scores were 6.90.
Education expert Hamid Hasan said that this year's passing rate percentage could not be considered an achievement as it was the first time the new system was implemented.
The changes also did not resolve the persistent quality gaps across regions, he said. "Many areas need improvement in education, including services in poor provinces where the national exam passing rates are low from year to year."
For example, East Nusa Tenggara, which had notably bad performances from 2008 to 2010, still remained at the bottom for all seniors this year. East Nusa Tenggara is not alone, however. Thirteen other provinces also fell behind the national rate of senior high and Islamic schools.
Hamid said that the fact that more than half of the 33 provinces were behind the national rate was because of a lack of quality education. "There is the issue of fairness here. Some of the children of our nation receive a good education, but others have no access to the standard education set by the government. We have to fix this," he said.