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Compared to 2008, the percentage of senior high students that passed this year's final national examinations saw a slight increase in most provinces. The results of the exams were separately announced Saturday (June, 13 2009), Sunday (June, 14 2009), Monday (June, 15 2009) and Tuesday (June, 16 2009) by regional education offices across Indonesia. It was not clear if passing increased at a national level, as the National Education Ministry is yet to make a public announcement. In West Sumatra, 3,409 of 56,609 senior high school students failed the exams, but the remaining 53,198 others, or 95.98 percent, passed. "The passing percentage increased from last year's 87.55 percent," head of the West Sumatra education, youth and sport office Burhasman Bur said in Padang on Sunday (June, 14 2009). "Those who did not pass can take the Package C, or national equality exams, scheduled for July 23-26. Registration will open at their respective schools," he added. This year, 95.55 students in Central Java passed the exams, an increase from 94.36 percent last year. Kunto Nugroho, head of the province's education office, said 7,340 students, or 5.64 percent, from vocational schools, failed the 2009 exams. Meanwhile, head of the Semarang education office Akhmat Zaenuri said the number of students from "favorite senior high schools" in the city that passed the exams failed to reach the ideal of 100 percent. They came close, however, with 95.03 percent of students from these schools passing this year's national exams, he said. In East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), the provincial education, youth and sport office said 12,847 of 47,011 students did not pass the exams. Office head Thobias Uly said 70.2 percent of students in the region passed, just above the target of 70 percent. East Java however, bucked the national trend, with the amount of students in the region that passed the exams falling from 3.07 percent last year to 4.77 percent in 2009, Suwanto, head of the local education office said on Saturday. He said 15,078 (4.77 percent) of the 316,039 senior high school students, including those from Madrasah Aliyah Islamic schools and vacational schools in East Java, failed the final exams, which were conducted nationwide on April 20-24, 2009. Suwanto said failings of students from vocational schools in the province saw an increase from 3.12 percent in 2008 to 5.48 percent this year. "We don't know yet about the main cause of the increase in the failing number, but we should better not look for the *scapegoats'. "This existing reality should be made an object for evaluation by the education office, the religious affairs office, schools and their teachers *to improve their performances in the future*," he said.
Author: The Jakarta Post with a little modified Indonesia Today
