Jakarta – With massive delays and students in remote areas forced to take exams on photocopied materials, the credibility of this year's national examination results is being thrown into doubt.

Dedi Suwandi Gumelar, a lawmaker from the House of Representatives' Commission X overseeing education, argued that the exams were unfair and therefore the results should be annulled.

"The annulment would have to be a national consensus at the House of Representatives. It's just not fair how some students only got copies, some taking it on a later date, and there were even reports of leaks," he said on Friday.

Educational observer Darmaningtyas said the mismanagement of the national examination had put the credibility of its results into question.

"The result of delayed examinations will not be deemed credible as they do not reflect the actual results of students' learning process. Distress experienced by students will greatly affect the exam results," he said.

He argued that the national examination delay could dampen student motivation. "They had prepared for the examination, but they could be disappointed as a result of the delays."

The Education and Culture Ministry has been on the defense amid mounting criticism of its apparent incompetence in handling the national exams.

Deputy Education and Culture Minister for Education Musliar Kasim rebuffed the suggestion that this year's exams were not credible and should be dismissed as illegitimate.

"This is all force majeure. There's a standard of procedures in the event a school lacks exam materials. The exams can be photocopied in the presence of witnesses from universities, local education agency, and the police," Kasim told The Jakarta Post via telephone on Friday.

He called on the public to stop making a fuss over the ordeal as the same process was implemented for the exams and there was no problem. "Please do not make matters worse and dismiss the exams all together. We admit it was our mistake. The upper echelons in the ministry are dealing with this matter personally. This is all a tragedy," he said.

The ministry assured that the junior high school exam, which is due to start next Monday, will proceed as planned. "I'm optimistic that the exam materials for the national exams will be delivered on time," Kasim said.

As of now, the ministry does not foresee any problems with the printing and distribution of the exam materials for junior high schools, Kasim said. "We have anticipated any issues. The exams will begin on April 22," he added.

The ministry decided to relieve the printing company, PT Ghalia Indonesia, from its role as it failed to print and deliver exam materials for 11 provinces, It is now only responsible for printing and distributing exam materials to junior high schools in Bali.

Despite the government's claim, as of the late afternoon on Friday, exam materials for junior high school in Nunukan regency, East Kalimantan had not arrived. "We still haven't received confirmation on when the materials will arrive," said Nunukan education head Rahardi, as quoted by Antara news agency.

He said, however, that Nunukan did receive the exam materials for their high schools on time. Darmaningtyas suggested that the printing process for the examination materials should be decentralized again to avoid another distribution fiasco.

"The materials should be printed near the schools so distribution won't be time consuming. The printing process was decentralized before 2010. It was very effective," Darmaningtyas said.

He said that there would always be problems concerning the distribution of examination sheets to remote regions such as Papua or East Nusa Tenggara. "If for any reason the examination has to be conducted in spite of the lack of examination sheets, the teachers can make manual corrections, or the teachers can move the students' answers to a computer-based answer sheet, which is very risky," he added.

Kasim, however, disagreed with the suggestion, saying that a centralized system for the national exams was necessary. "It prevents question sheet leakages. This way, it is also more efficient, and the ministry can have better control – all of this is to raise the credibility of the national exams." (ogi/asw)