For decades, students have been fearing National Exams. Experts have complained that these exams are not a fair tool to measure students' competence, let alone the country's education level. Proposals to scrap the exams have been submitted, only to be rejected by President Joko Widodo.
Instead of scrapping the whole exams, the Ministry of Education and Culture issued a new policy.
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Starting this year, National Exam for high school seniors no longer has six subjects, but only four Math, Bahasa Indonesia, English, and one elective subject.
The elective options will be based on the student's major. For social studies student, they can choose between geography, sociology, and economics. Science students have physics, chemistry, and biology as options. Literature students may choose one among Advanced Indonesian Literature and foreign languages (Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, German or French).
The new regulation wassigned by the ministry's Head of Research and Development Totok Suprayitno on Jan. 11.
He also ordered education agencies in provincial, district, and city levels to urge schools in their territory to update students data with the choice taken by each student.
The ministry assured that the subject selection will not affect students' future major in college. Thus, students are allowed to select the subject they master most.
"There will be no correlation between the choice of subject on national exam and the subjects they are going to take incollege. Our expectation is that students are capable of showing their best performance on the subject they choose," said the ministry's Head of Educational Assessment Nizam.
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