Jawa Pos, page 30
Elementary school (SD) students have not undertaken the national exam for 3 years. As a substitute, they have taken the Regional-Standardized Islamic School Exam (USMBD). On Monday (15/5), the students will take USMBD that will be the benchmark for them to continue to junior high school (SMP).
The Head of Education Office of DKI Jakarta, Sopan Andrianto, said that the function of USMBD and the national exam were the same. The difference is in the questions. The national exam questions are prepared by the government, while the USMBD questions are prepared by the region. However, there are exam summaries from the central government. As a result, the exam questions are not too different.
Sopan explained that in 2017, 2,952 schools will hold USMBD consisting of 2,453 SD, 478 Islamic Primary Schools and 21 Primary Schools for Exceptional Students. The SMBD questions were transferred to all representative areas on Saturday (13/5) for delivery to the schools across DKI Jakarta regions.
Sopan added that it was still unable to implement a computer-based USMBD. This is due to the large number of elementary schools in DKI Jakarta and the lack of facilities as well as the infrastructure. Therefore, the exam will be implemented in a pencil and paper format.
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