Should National Examination Be Erased?

If we give the question above to the students, I am sure they will give “YES” as the answer, If we give the same question to our government, maybe the government will say “NO”, and if you ask me “should national examination be erased?” I will say “NO” as the answer. It does not mean I am on government side. I stand as someone who has experienced national examination and passed it. In my opinion we do not need to erase national examination because that is one way to know our education index, so we can compare with other countries. By conducting national examination, we also make the students make an effort to pass the examination. And we cannot admit that some students do cheating and some wrong ways to pass the exam, and they said that is their effort. Throughout the national examination, the teachers can improve their professionalism by creating various teaching method to teach the student without put more pressure to them. Also, the teacher are demanded to set strategies that take students to the purpose of learning, or in this situation is at least fulfill the grade of national exam. We do not need to erase the national examination, but what should we do is making some changes such as use the national examination just to measure not to determine whether the student can pass or not, because we still have the learning process including portfolios, homework, and daily examinations. In order to make our national examination better and to create “clean exam” without cheating, buying and selling answer key. It is needed cooperation both from the government and from the education subject. In the end, the Indonesian people may have to support governmental policy concerning the national exam, where the country allocates 20 percent of its budget toward education. In conclusion, the national exam is still needed and National examination needs not only improvement but also support from education subject and the society.