National Exam (UN) : The "Brilliant" System

Once upon a time there's a chaos called 'UN'....

This chaos called UN is short from Ujian Nasional (National Exam) which is mandatory for every school student in a great country called Indonesia.
Every school student from primary level to secondary and high school must take this UN nightmare before they are declared graduated from the school.
Most people call this UN is a nightmare like no other. Usually the victims from this UN are high school students who is just a step away from entering the real world and start making money if they decide not to go to college or university. Still whether they choose to work straight after high school or continuing their study in University they have to pass this thing called the UN (created by the government).

The UN started at 2005 when the government produce a law about the standardization for national education.
The funny thing is, the ministry of education head by Bambang Sudibyo at the time think that the standardization for the national education must be implemented through this so called UN which apply to all students all across the country.
To all the public and private school. To all the favorite public school or the not so favorite. To all the expensive private school and to the cheaper ones. To all schools with top notch facility and all the schools that is fortunate enough if their roof doesn't fall off.


Well, the program continues anyway. In the name of improving the future generation intelligence then every student in the country must pass this Exam above the grades that is determined by the government.
If any student could not achieve even just a point from that grade than they are free to cry their heart out. And of course the government also give them the freedom choice to be embarrassed.
Okay, maybe its not that bad. Because the gov actually give another option to those who dont pass. They can take a package called paket C which is an equivalency exam for high school certificate.

So no worries people!
Its okay if all your hard works in the last three years in high school dont count.
Because its all for the sake of improving your intelligence.
Its okay if you dont have enough money to take extra lessons in Bimbel or any other course outside your school.

You know what else you can do?
You can always cheat! Oh yes you can!
Dont worry about your teachers catching you cheating. Because in fact they will be the one helping you to cheat.
Yes this is the other brilliant side from UN. Because all that matters is this three days of hell.
All the hard works that the school, teachers and students have done for the last three years will never count for anything! At all !!!

But thanks God, those nightmares are 'almost' over.
The supreme court grant the citizen law suit against the implementation of UN.
The grant by the supreme court emphasizes that the government must no longer hold UN for national exam.

Some would think this is a bad thing. Some will think why would anyone rejecting the idea about improving the quality of our children competencies?
Well, no one here is having anything against that. Its just that the manner of the system is so unfair and just doesnt make any sense if you see the reality on the field as i mentioned before.
How can you expect a student from remote area that has no access to internet, no enough money to have a privat tutoring and probably dont even have the books that they need to pass the exam as well as the more fortunate students in big cities for example?

We must improve the whole education field in this country simply because education is the very foundation for a better nation, a better country.
In order to compete of course the strength of the people needs to be at the highest level.
But this type of UN is definitely not the way to do it.
We must realize that the whole infrastructure must be dealt first. The quality of teachers must be improved.
And one way to improve the teachers quality is of course having them into a certain qualification.

But also dont forget the other thing that is actually the most essential, have we paid enough attention to teachers welfare? Have we given them enough appreciation?

Dont ever dare to dream about education improvement if there is still collapse schools, rare books, and unjust access to knowledge...


So please, dont cry for your school Indonesia..........