TEMPO.CO, Jakarta-Culture and Education Minister, Muhammad Nuh denied any statement saying that the 2013 national examination was uncoordinated and chaotic, particularly for Senior High Schools.
He said that it was not a chaos, as it was only postponed due to technical problems, and that the result will still be reliable. “If it was chaotic, we could not perform the national examination,” said Nuh in his office, Monday, April 22.
Despite the technical problems, there are three indications of corruption in the document procurement for the national exams, including:
1.Significant increase of budget
Financy Ministry once refused the planned budget for national exams because it was increased from Rp. 543,2 billion (US$ 55,84 million), to Rp. 644 billion (US$ 66,20 million).
2. Change of budget for document procurement and change of participant numbers
The Education Minitry revised the exams fee from Rp 39,000 into Rp 53,000 per student. The number of participants decreased from 14 million into 12 million students.
3. The Quality of the answer sheet
Students and supervisors of the national exams complained on the answer sheets which were considered to be too thin and easily torn. The answer sheet is estimated to weigh 40 gram, while the minimum starndard should be 70 gram.
Many copy centers no longer use 40 gram papers, as it is below acceptable standard. The price of 40 gram paper is Rp 16,000 to Rp 18,000 per ream, much cheaper than the 70 gram paper which is Rp 24,000 per ream.
SUNDARI | M. ANDI PERDANA
