Cons the National Exams

Do we really need a National Exam? For government, National Exam is aimed to maintain the quality of education nationwide and to set up the national standard for junior and senior high schools. For this reason, the previous administration insisted that National Exam could not be eliminated. The goal determined by the government sounds nice. They want to improve the quality of education nationwide by means of a standardized test called National Exam. They want that all schools across the country have the same standard indicated by the minimum passing grade of National Exam.

However, the practice doesn’t sound as nice as that stated goal. It was reported that many students cheated in the exam. Not only students, some teachers were also reported helping their students to cheat. I think this humiliating practice occurs because students were pushed to pass their education. Because the exam’s result influenced whether a student would pass his education or not, the students cheated in the exam in order to get good result. Besides, schools were also pushed to pass as many as possible their students because how many students they could pass and what the average result of the exam they could get determined their prestige and reputation among the public. For this reason, the schools demanded their teachers to help the students cheating in the exam.

Furthermore, they argue that National Exam functioned to determine whether a student passes his education is narrowing the definition of education. Education doesn’t only cover cognitive faculty. It also covers attitude, personality, and skills. Hence, determining whether a student passes his education by means of National Exam only is not in line with the comprehensive definition of education. Besides, that will negate the uniqueness of students. As it is known, some students are excellent in their cognitive but they don’t have good personality. Some other students have impressing personality – and probably outstanding skill – but they are not good enough in their cognitive. There are also some cases that some students were smart but they failed in one subject examined in National Exam. As a result, they unluckily could not pass their education.

So, Should the national exams held?