Assessment for Measuring School Performance

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim smiles at the camera on Thursday (12/12/2019) during a lull in a working meeting with House of Representatives Commission X at the Senayan legislative complex in Jakarta. He discussed topics such as the school zoning system, a plan to abolish the national exams and the 2020 education budget.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Changing the student learning evaluation method from the national exam to a minimum competency assessment and character survey starting in 2021 is not only to evaluate students, but also to improve teacher competency. With this method, learning does not merely pursue grades, but also creates contextualization of students\' knowledge and reasoning abilities.

The national exam has examined students’ knowledge on the content of subjects, with the majority of the exam emphasizing the memorization of formulas and theories. The Education and Culture Ministry plans to include questions that require high order thinking skills (HOTS), but without many changes in learning patterns.

"This assessment measures school performance through the results achieved by students, rather than judging students. The assessment will be conducted in grades IV, VIII, and XI so that there will be a year to mend the school learning system before students graduate," said Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim in a working meeting with the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission X in Jakarta, Thursday.

Improving the quality

During a working visit to Bekasi, West Java, President Joko Widodo expressed hope that replacing the national exam with a minimum competency assessment and character survey would improve the quality of education. "What is being assessed are the schools and teachers. There is also a character survey. That can be used as an evaluation of education, to see what level we are at," he said on Thursday.

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim (left) shares a light moment with Muchlis L. Luddin, the ministry’s inspector general, during a working meeting with the House of Representatives Commission X on Thursday (12/12/2019) at the Senayan legislative complex in Jakarta.

In this assessment method, said Nadiem, students would no longer be tested on each subject, but in literacy, numeracy and character. The Education and Culture Ministry is still discussing its technical implementation. One thing is for sure, the exam will be completed on computers. Students will read text in the form of narration, argumentation and other forms on topics that relate to daily life. This type of assessment is inspired by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test.

Educators hope the transition process from the national exam to the minimum competency assessment and character survey will be carried out immediately and comprehensively to be implemented within 1.5 years.

According to the head of the Cikal Teachers Campus Bukik Setiawan the biggest challenge in conducting this assessment was to mobilize teachers en masse. "The plan to mobilize creative teachers is a reliable way to encourage them to make changes, especially if the teacher organization simultaneously provides assistance," he said.

Secretary-general of the Independent Teachers\' Union Federation Heru Kumoro highlighted that the difficulties in implementing HOTS learning were not that teachers did not know HOTS subject matter and concepts, but that they did not yet know how to translate formulas and theories into real-life narratives. Therefore, training must be carried out.