Three deaf students do mental exercises before taking part in national exams at the School for Students with Disabilities (SLB) in Purwokerto, Banyumas, Central Java. The school is run by the Usaha Tama Welfare Foundation.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — An increase in the number of participants and schools taking part in the computer-based national exams (UNBK) has been one of the benefits of the availability of infrastructure in information technology and communication in schools. However, the utilization of information technology and communication should not stop with the computer-based national exams, but has to be optimized to improve the quality of daily learning in schools.
"With the UNBK system, we know the strength and weakness of computers available in schools. The Ministry of Education and Culture strives to increase the infrastructure of technology information and communication by seeing the availability of budget," Inspector General of the Ministry of Education and Culture Daryanto said at a press conference on National Exams for Senior High Schools SMA/MA 2017 in Jakarta on Monday.
According to Daryanto, the central and regional governments have to encourage infrastructure improvement in information technology and communication in schools. Involvement including students and parents is important as well.
A number of regions are committed to improving infrastructure of information technology and communication in schools. The South Sumatra government, for example, allocated funds amounting to Rp 20 billion from its regional budget in 2016 for the procurement of the facilities of the computer-based national exams. "This year, we will also allocate funds to enable a rising number of students to take part in the computer-based national exams," said Widodo, head of the South Sumatra Education Office.
Disadvantaged areas
If other regions can expect funds from respective regional administrations, there should be an inter-ministerial breakthrough to implement the computer-based national exams in disadvantaged, outermost and frontier regions. Implementing the computer-based national exams in disadvantaged, outermost and frontier regions is not easy. Aside from the expensive costs, it is difficult for the schools to bear the expenses because the number of students is limited, which means the allocation of school operational funds is also small.
"Even though we have no specific target for the computer-based national exams, enthusiasm of people in disadvantaged, outermost and frontier regions is big. The implementation of the national exams becomes more efficient," said Ari Santoso, the chairman of Communication Bureau and Public Service of the Ministry of Education and Culture, who is also the coordinator of the computer-based national exams.
Separately, Secretary of Research and Development Agency of the Ministry of Education and Culture Dadang Sudiyarto said that the costs to implement the computer-based national exams in 2017 are still large, namely Rp 490 billion. In 2016, the costs reached Rp 540 billion. This year the costs can be saved from the expenses to print and distribute exam logistics and answer sheets. "In 2016 the cost of printing was Rp 90 billion. Now it has dropped by 30 percent," Dadang said.
For schools that do not have complete facilities, the implementation of the computer-based national exams means additional costs. More funds are used to buy computers or to buy or rent generators to anticipate the possibility of blackouts.
This, for example, is carried out by senior high school SMA Mataram in Semarang, Central Java. SMA Mataram headmaster Eri Setiawan said his school spent Rp 50 million to buy the infrastructure for the implementation of the computer-based national exams, including to buy a generator and two computer servers.
Based on data of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the number of participants of the SMA/MA national exams reached 1.8 million students, including 63.20 percent who use the computer-based system. The number of schools implementing the computer-based national exams reached 9,661 schools, including 1,972, which are grouped in the SMP/MTS, SMA/MA and SMK categories. The regions that use the computer-based national exams are Yogyakarta, Jakarta and Bangka Belitung.
On the first day of the SMA/MA national exams yesterday, the implementation of the computer-based system ran smoothly in general. However, Ari Santoso mentioned that technical constraints, ranging from power outages and network problems to computer problems, still occurred. The number of problems, however, was much smaller than the national exams for the senior vocational high schools (SMK). At the first session, there were 98 incidents. "With the drastic increase in the number of participants and schools, we appreciated the support from state electricity company PLN and the communication company, which strive to give better services," Ari said.
The improvement of infrastructure for technology information and communication has received attention from many schools. Deputy headmaster of senior high school SMAN 24 Jakarta for the curriculum section, Dwiyani Ganewati, said her school hoped there would be additional computers so that next year the national exams could be held in one session. "We sent proposals to the Jakarta Education Office. Last year we got 33 computers, but we need more than that," Dwiyani said.
