Once again, the Vice President, that mastermind of educational standards, is taking potshots at parents and teachers. This time he has been talking about the Ujian Nasional (National Examinations).
These are set and administered by the Ministry of Education's Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan (Institute/Board for National Education Standards). These are taken in SD (Elementary School, Grade 6, 11+), SMP (Junior High, Grade 9, 14+) and SMA (Senior High, Grade 12). In order to 'graduate' to the next level, which is university in the case of Grade 12 students, they must achieve a minimum average score of 5.25 in as many as six subjects, of which three, Maths, Indonesian and English are compulsory. Given regional ties and geopolitics, and as much as I love English, I do wonder why Mandarin isn't a higher priority.
Kalla says that the passing grade at 5.25 is still too low. After all, in Singapore it's 7.00 and in Malaysia it's 8.00.
Well, so bloody what?
As I've already stated, the national exams, being multi-choice, are designed for automatons trained in the art of guessing, although maybe it's not an art but a technology because it's not as if there are moves in education circles towards a population trained to be critical in their thinking.
Society is being trained to be acquiescent so that the likes of Kalla, Bakrie and other family conglomerates seemingly concerned with 'welfare' can enrich themselves at our expense. And we get the blame for the almighty cock-ups they've perpetrated on our behalf.
According to the Post, Kalla also says that teachers should teach the content that will be tested and students should know what is going to be tested. This could be interpreted as a licence to cheat.
However, I'll be fair and merely test one test.
I have a copy of this year's Junior High Ujian Nasional prepared for SMP. It is riddled with errors, too many to count, errors of collocation, syntax, spelling, punctuation, verb tenses and more. I reckon it's a good thing that the pass mark is "too low". And after all that, it merely tests basic reading skills and knowledge of synonyms. There are no writing, listening or oral components, which is probably just as well.
After all, if even the examiners can't pass it ....
Have a look at Question 7, which I've copied verbatim. What do you think is the correct answer?
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Read the following notice. It's put on the wall.
It means ...
-------A.----the place is special for you as visitors.
-------B.----this is a place for you to wait.
-------C.----you cannot wait anyone here.
-------D.----you should not stay here.
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Ignoring the fact that 'the' wall is not specified and the word 'for' is omitted from C, it seems obvious that C and D are not the right answers. You'd probably correctly answer B, but is A actually wrong?
Given that there are too many horrendous errors, that in one reading passage "Komala drowned ... and all of her guards could not save her" and that in another passage we are informed that there will be a wedding on "Friday, the thirthteenth of June", is A actually wrong?
So, Mr. Kalla, don't criticise parents who sue the Ministry of Education for failing their children, and don't criticise those teachers - again - who are really pissed off at being employed by a bunch of bureaucrats who think they have all the answers.
Which they probably do.
For a price.
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I've posted a follow up to this post on Performing Monkeys.
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PS. I'm stuck on a crossword clue: can you help?
Political wisdom (13) _ _ _ T _ _ _ A _ S _ I _
This is a crossword for (oxy)morons!
