Jakarta, April 24 (Antara) - Some schools in a number of regions, during the implementation of Computer-Based National Examinations (UNBK) on Monday, delayed the tests for some time as they failed to retrieve the examination materials due to Internet access problems.
The Ministry of Education and Culture has been organizing UNBK tests for lower and upper secondary schools from April 2 to 26, 2018.
Based on the schedule, the UNPB is conducted from April 2 to 5 for vocational schools (SMK), from April 9 to 12 for senior high schools (SMA), and from April 23 to 26 for junior high schools (SMP).
On the first day, on Monday (April 23), of the UNBK exams for SMP schools, a number of schools were not able to access the examination materials due to link problems to the Internet servers.
Education and Culture Minister, Muhadjir Effendy, stated that the constraints being faced by schools in a number of regions were caused due to server overcapacity. The number of lower secondary school students taking part in the UNBK exams across the country reaches over 4.29 million.
"The overcapacity of the server was due to of a significant increase in the number of lower secondary school students taking part in the examinations this year. It is beyond expectation that the server capacity is inadequate," Effendy noted in Timika, Papua, on Monday.
The Internet access problem was reported in a number of regions on Monday, such in Jakarta, Semarang (Central Java), and Papua.
Inung Kurnia, for example, remarked that her son¿s exam was delayed by one hour. "This morning, my child's exam was supposed to begin at 7:30 a.m., but it was delayed by half an hour due to server constraints," Kurnia added in Jakarta on Monday.
She explained that her son attended the Madrasah Tsanawiyah (MTs, a lower secondary Islamic School) Al Khairiyah, Mampang, South Jakarta. Her son should have finished the exam at 09.30 a.m., but because of the server constraint, the exam finished only at 10:30 a.m.
Rini Suryati, the parent of another student, expressed concern about the server constraint during the implementation of the examination. Her daughter Fira, at SMPN 4 of Bogor, should have appeared for the second session of the exam, which began at 10 a.m. "But it was delayed until 1 p.m. due to server constraint," Suryati remarked.
The server problems took place not only in Jakarta and Bogor (West Java) but also in other regions such as Malang (East Java) and Yogyakarta.
Director General of Primary and Secondary Education of the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemdikbud), Hamid Muhammad, remarked that server constraint is a common problem that often happens during UNBK. Currently, the obstacles are being handled by the Educational Assessment Center (Puspendik).
"We have asked the Puspendik to overcome this server problem," Muhammad noted.
Head of Research and Development Agency of the Education and Culture Ministry, Totok Suprayitno, explained that his side has provide flexibility to the schools to delay the test and reschedule it until the problem of server is resolved.
"Schools can postpone the exam schedule until the problem is resolved," Suprayitno noted.
A total of 4,296,557 SMP and MTS students attended the national examinations from April 23 to 26, 2018. Of these, 63 percent, or 2,694,692 students, participated in UNBK, and 37 percent, or 1,601,865 students, took part in Text and Pencil-based (UNKP) tests.
In Timika, Effendy monitored the implementation of both computer- and pencil-based exams. The exams comprise four subjects, namely Indonesian language, Mathematics, English language, and Science.
The minister had earlier explained that preparations for the exams have been made smoothly. "Preparations for the national exams are going smoothly. We hope the implementation of the UN for SMP will face no obstacles. Today, we will monitor the UN in Timika, Papua," Effendy revealed on Monday.
However, he acknowledged the server problems faced by a number of schools in a number of regions. Effendy elaborated that the problem of server interruption experienced by a number of junior high schools on the first day of UNBK implementation lasted no more than 30 minutes. The problem was addressed directly for the proper implementation of UNBK.
"The matter was resolved in less than half an hour," he stated.
According to Effendy, problems that occur, in principle, do not interrupt the examinations because of the flexibility of UNBK 2018 implementation schedule. The exams can be arranged in such a way that the schedule can be rotated or done in shift sessions.
"We have anticipated that there are times when the test is not carried out exactly on time because of technical problems, such as server problems or electricity supply outage," he revealed.
The Education and Culture Ministry itself had anticipated obstacles related to electricity supply, but the server and Internet network turned out to be problematic, Effendy pointed out.
"Hopefully, in the future, we will improve it to become better. But, in principle, the server problem on Monday did not affect the UNBK implementation across the country," Effendy concluded. ***4***A014/INE)EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 24-04-2018 23:30:2 |
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