NATIONAL EXAM: PRO AND CONTRA?

National exam becomes the hot topic in most of discussions among students,
teachers, and parents. Some people believe that national exam is not necessary for students
as a requirement to be able graduate from a school. In other hand, other people see national
exam as an important indicator to know whether students have mastered all school
materials or not. The debate among society about national examination goes on until now.
For people who agree, national exam is necessary for students as a requirement to
graduate from a school. People who support the national exam explain that the quality of
the Indonesia education will drop without the national exam, so they try to defend the
current system. They also think that national examination can motivate students to study
harder.
However there are people who disagree with the opinion. Those who against this
national exam kept in school education say that it doesn't need the national exams because
the quality of education does not just depend on the national exam. Further, the national
exam only measures a small portion of students' competence in specific subjects, and does
not measure students' competences throughout the semester.
In conclusion, national examination can still be useful as an instrument to evaluate
or detect the level of students' cognitive competence in several subjects, on a national scale.
However, it is not fair if only national exam score that judge whether students pass or not.
Government should make a regulation that national exam is not the only requirement for
students to graduate. There should be other requirements added such as students daily
score, behavior, and achievement.