National Examination: Pro and contra

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html/http://masdinsite.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Siswa-Uan.JPG A number of pro and contra opinions about national examination continue to arise among people, particularly in governmental and educational communities. National examination, abbreviated UN, that will be held on March in the next year, had become a hot discussion topic when people won the suit against government in Supreme Court through citizen law suit. However, the Minister for National Education of RI, Prof. Dr. Muh. Nuh, was consistent with his initial commitment to implement the National Examination. Considering the decision, none of its words imply that the government is prohibited from implementing the national examination, Nuh said in response to Supreme Court decision. Viewed from governmental point of view, the national examination is necessary as a control for the extent to which a school have implemented the national education program properly. Thus, the output of national examination is a success indication of a school in implementing the national education curricula. For this reason, the national examination will be needed constantly, whatever the constraint. In contrast, viewed from school point of view, national examination is considered to frequently treat the students unjustly because: 1) It is the school that know best the student progress, logically, it is the school that have the full right to provide examination, 2) with the student required to pass the national examination, what they have learned for three years will be nothing if a student doesnt pass the examination, due to only one or two subjects, 3) the national examination measures only the cognitive domain while the school develop 3 educational domains. National Examination Should Not be Abolished http://schoolhousetalk.com/national-examination-should-not-be-abolished.school Parents want government to abolish national examination. If the government do that, There is no educational people in Indonesia!!! Many people against the national examination and government plans to abolish national examination. The people who are against the national examination demonstrate the government and want government to abolish national examination. However, whatever the reasons from people, government should not abolish national examination because national examination is the best way to increase the quality of Indonesian students. The educational level of Indonesian students now is decreasing from time to time. So, to increase the quality and the level of educational in Indonesia, national examination is needed. Although some people believe that national examination is not efficient and useless, national examination is very useful not only for the government but also for the schools and the students. National examination is the best way to know the grade of the students. We can see the quality of the students from the grade or

achievement that students get from national examination. Eventhough there are only some subject that are being assessed, they represents the students achievement. If the grade or achievement is high, so the quality of the students is good. The other argument why national examination is very useful is that national examination can be the standard of the quality of the students. If the average of students achievement is high so it means that the quality of Indonesian students is high also. It also can be argued that with national examination people can know the best and the most appropriate school to choose for their children based on the result of the national examination. For example, if school As graduation level is 98% and graduation level of school B is 95%, people will choose and judge that school A is better. People believe that national examination can only make the students feared about being failed in the graduation, but it is not a logical argument to abolish national examination. If the students have prepared enough for the examination, they will feel confident for doing national examination without feels fear. The other argument is all schools in Indonesia have the standard of the curriculum that will be examined, so the possibility of the graduation is high. The last argument is the standard of the national examination have been matched with the standard quality of the students in Indonesia. The government will not give the level of difficulty of the questions of national examination that higher than the quality of the Indonesian students. People think that national examination is not fair. It is useless since after all they have spent almost three years for studying at school and finally it is only assessed by the final examination which just lasts for a couple days, and the government only assessed some of the subjects not all the subjects. They argue that not all students achieved the subjects that will be examined; maybe they achieved the other subjects, so it is not fair, but those peoples arguments are irrelevant. The first is each school has the examination itself. So, it does not mean that what students learned is useless. What students learned had been assessed at the school examination. The second argument is if all the materials or the subjects are assessed in national examination, the government will get difficulties in grading the scores. The government only assesses some of the main subjects and the other subjects are assessed by the school. If all the subjects are assessed by the government, it will take a long time and complex mechanism of grading the scores. The third and the last argument is the materials that be assessed are the materials that students got for three years, and it had been assessed in the school every semester.So, it would be easy to pass the National examination. In conclusion, national examination should not be abolished because it is a useful thing to know the achievement, grade, and standard of the students. Many people demonstrate about national examination because they do not know the benefits of national examination. If there is no national examination what will happen in the future. Is there is any educational people in Indonesia? The answer is no. So the government should not abolish national examination.