National Exam (Indonesia)

[2] In the same year, National Exam is no longer a standard of education completion as it is stated on Government Regulation No.

There is no cut-off score because the newest exam policy is aimed to map Indonesian students’ competency in every single region in Indonesia.

However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, President Joko Widodo announced the cancellation of the 2020 national examination for all education levels, except Vocational High School (Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan, SMK) that has already been conducted in 47% of the schools in the country.

Total 4 subjects are objected to allow student gain more focus on studying for the exam.

[7] During this national exam graduation delimitation is determined by agreement between the decision makers only.

This situation becomes unfair for students, because the required capacity exceeds the maximum capability.

Critics argue that it does not give an accurate portrayal of the Indonesian students' real competency because of problems with cheating and other issues.

A possible explanation for this sudden increase in failure rate is due to the fact that the test was to be issued in March, giving schools less time for prepare.

To deter cheating, National Exam question variation was increased for middle and high school, from one to five in 2011, and from five to 20 in 2013.

Other measures were the inclusion of barcodes in 2013 partly to determine question variation codes and to tackle cheating.

In 2013, National Exam for high school are delayed in 11 provinces because of printing and packing confusion and errors.