46 society financially, getting a scholarship was the only chance for them to get higher
education. The other students considered NE was no more like a formality test. It was
shown by this excerpt:
“…NE is just like an ordinary examination, but it is more aimed to formality purpose…”
– S1
…
UN itu kayak ulangan biasa tapi lebih ke formalitas
…
It meant they only considered NE as an instrument brought them to their aim-legally graduated. They considered that being legally graduated was more important than
achieving good mark. In short, it showed that these students neglected the education.
NE had put the students in a forced situation. It was interesting when the researcher asked about their readiness to NE. All of them answered:
“…whether we are ready or not, we must be ready…” –
S3 …
ya siap gak siap harus
siap…
Their answer showed that they were doubtful about their readiness. In fact, whether they are ready or not, in time, they were forced to be ready to face the NE. Besides,
the researcher figured out that all the students who participated in this study still got scores under the standard graduate competence in the entire tryout tests they had
passed.
2. Teachers
The teacher pointed out that NE gave her short preparation time. In the two previous years of study, she informed that she got 10 months for each. However,
this year she said that she only had 8 months. In an excerpt, she said:
47
“…we have very short preparation time in grade three… we only have eight months effective for this year… I feel… what it is … it is not enough at all…” –
ET …jadi
kelas tiga itu didapatkan dengan waktu
yang singkat. …tahun ini itu yang efektif cuma delapan bulan…
saya ngerasa… apa ya… ya kurang lah waktunya…
She further explained that her students had also lost 3 months in the eleventh grade to do industrial field practice. The short time made her to make some adjustment in
their materials and methods. The teacher highly relied on exercises as the materials. Discussing and drilling the exercises were common activity in class. Unfortunately,
she found that her students were hard to be adjusted in this new situation. In short, the short preparation time gave significant impact to the NE preparation.
The researcher, based on the investigation to the teacher, revealed fraudulent practices done by the school. The teacher explained that the current NE
regulation opened chance for school to do some fraudulent practices. As explained in the beginning, the decision of graduation was based on the calculation of two
aspects –NE 40 and school score 60. The potential problem lied on the 60
from school score quota. It was because it opened a chance for the school to interfere the result of the school score. On an excerpt, the teacher said:
“…the school processes the school score anyway... when the school wants all its students pass the NE, it will obviously make up the school scores as good as
possible…” – ET
nilai sekolah itu kan yang membuat sekolah. Ketika sekolah itu ingin semua anaknya lulus, otomatis nilainya
kan dibuat sebagus mungkin kan…
The further investigation revealed that the fraudulent practices were motivated by two major factors, i.e.: the ISO and social demand. As the teacher explained, the
school had certified by ISO standard. To defend the certificate, the school had to fulfill some agreements. Based on the investigation to VP, one of the agreement
was school had to achieve 100 graduation. It was shown by this excerpt:
48
“…one of the curriculum quality target is to fulfill ISO standard… there are 8 standard points related to NE… this year we the school targets at 100
graduation…” – VP
…
satu diantara sasaran mutu kurikulum adalah untuk memenuhi standar ISO
…ini ada 8 poin…yang berkaitandengan UN…ini untuk kelulusan tahun 2014
ini
kita targetkan 100 lulus…
Besides, the school also need to keep its prestige. The school did understand the society’s perspective of a good school. The school believed that the society
considered a school was good from its achievement in NE. In addition, the school needed such achievement. The school did realize achieving good result in NE would
keep s ociety’s trust toward the school. Then, the school would keep getting students
and struggling. The fraudulent practices were done systematically. The teacher explained
that one or two months before the NE, teachers and academic advisors were gathered. In the meeting, they were asked to predict the maximum potential scores
they could achieve. It was obviously seen in this excerpt:
“…usually, there will be a meeting two or three months before the NE. The participants are all teachers who teach twelfth graders and all the academic advisors
of twelfth graders. They will be asked for suggestions… Em… what is the highest score they possibl
y achieve in the NE ahead… the NE pure score…” – ET
…
dua bulan atau tiga bulan sebelumnya UN itu biasanya semua wali kelas, semua guru mata pelajaran kelas tiga itu dikumpulkan untuk dimintakan saran.
Em
…
anak-anak ini kalau bisa diprediksi itu nilainya berapa.. nilai UN-nya murni
…
The result of this meeting would be used to base how much the school should interfere the school scores by making up the scores. The teacher even said that this
year the fraudulent practices had gone too much. According to her, it was because the achievement in 2014 was predicted to decrease. The teacher was instructed to
make up the school score in 9.5 at the minimum. It was shown in this excerpt:
