TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - National Education Standard Board (BSNP) secretary Teuku Ramli Zakaria has dismissed allegations that the mentioning of Jakarta Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in the high school final exams this year was a form of a campaign of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI-P)’s presidential hopeful. Ramli said the governor’s name’s appearing on the exam papers was unintentional.
“It has nothing to do with a campaign,” he told Tempo on Monday, April 14, 2014. “We’ll have to investigate this case first,” he added.
Education and Culture Minister Mohammad Nuh also said he did not know Jokowi’s name was mentioned on the papers, while promising that he would verify the news immediately. “I’ll comment [on this issue] later,” he said.
Ramli added the questions of the national exams were made by a number of teachers from multiple regions and were later checked at the central level by senior teachers and lecturers. He said one of the criteria used by the teachers in formulating the questions was that they should be sterile of political content.
“Not everybody could see the questions,” he said.
NUR ALFIYAH
