TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s campaign team (TKN) spokesperson Irma Suryani Chaniago did not share the same enthusiasm of VP candidate Sandiaga Uno who promised to abolish the country’s national exams (UN) during last night's vice presidential debate.

Irma argues that entirely dropping the nationwide exams will only pose new problems and create a huge standard discrepancy between Indonesian students.

“We have built the system with great difficulty to produce human resources’ standards that are accountable, but Sandiaga Uno suddenly offers an absurd concept based on tracing interests and talents,” said Irma in a written statement Tempo received on Sunday.

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She said the education and human resources improvement programs offered by Prabowo Subianto’s running-mate lacks a solid basis and can be seen as an unattainable dream.

Irma fairly obviously compared the opposition’s program to those promised by Jokowi’s running-mate Ma’ruf Amin of providing students with higher education scholarships.

“This enables every Indonesian child to dream big without worrying about expensive costs of education,” said Irma.

Sandiaga Uno said in the vice presidential debate on Sunday night that his team will make sure that the UN system is stopped and have it replaced by tracing the interests of talent. He also mentioned the concept of a "link and match" school where job providers are connected with educational institutions

FIKRI ARIGI