Jakarta (Suara Pembaruan: 06/07/06) There are 93,000 seats available for new students in state universities this year. Recruitment is carried out through the New Students Admission Test (SPMB). Only around 25% of total Senior High School graduates who register and participate in the admission test would be admitted. The number of enrolling students’ increases by around 30,000 compared to last year.

The large number enrolling students shows a great interest for students to pursue higher education in universities. We can see in the field that in each new school year, the number of enrolling students increases steadily in all the education level from primary schools to universities. Competition is getting tougher, both in term of academic selection and financial capacity.

This situation is very different compared to that of two or three decades ago, where many community groups have to be pushed to go to school. Then, there were certain communities who still think that it was enough for their children if they could write, read and count.  In small villages, many children never finished their primary education.

The situation has changed. Education is now perceived as a process to develop qualified human beings and an opportunity to get a better life. Old views that hamper the access to education have been abandoned. In order to seize the very limited opportunity, every one has to compete.

Selection is no longer limited to predict whether those passing the test would be able to finish the education program well, but it also concern financial capacity. The cost of education continues to soars, the increase is even faster compared to the average growth of people’s welfare.

However, interest to go to school continues to increase. The number of high school graduates taking the admission tests compared to the number of available seats illustrates the huge interest in education.
This development should be accompanied by a good evaluation system.

The development of education, that managed to turn the situation from people having to be forced to get education to  a situation which education is considered as a necessity, should be accompanied with the right policies in evaluation, both as an assessment of students achievement in a certain education level and as a selection for students entering higher education level.

In the past few weeks, education evaluation became the centre of debate, because many doubt the validity of the national examination which have been used to determine students’ graduation. Victims of this invalid national examination now can only watch their fellows competing to enter universities.

The new students’ admission test highlight an irony as universities are not using the result of the national examination in its selection process. If the validity of the national examination is reliable, besides giving an idea about students’ achievement, the result could be used to estimate students’ potential to complete a higher education program.

Therefore, universities could set a minimum admission grade. If the number of students enrolling is much higher, they could determine admission by employing ranking system. The messy education evaluation system is also seen in junior high school enrolment. Schools in Jakarta are using General Academic Test (TAU). As a result, thousands of seats in junior high schools remain vacant, despite the implementation of the 9-year compulsory education program for years.

Availability in higher education level could not catch up with the fast-growing interest in education. Unfortunately the competition is not based on essential education principles only. There is a growing trend of financial consideration.

These troubles occur due to the various problems concerning education evaluation system, like the national examination. High drop-out rates also indicates that the new students selection test is still not functioning very well Therefore, we need a reliable and integrated education evaluation system to allow us to exercise the duty to develop the intellectuality of the nation.