Job Discussion Forums

beefer · Joined: 10 Feb 2006 Posts: 238 Location: java

have any other of you high school teachers out there been approached by anyone(i'm assuming he is a low level Dept. of Ed. guy) recently about getting a copy of the UN early as to " ensure good results" for the students/ school?

gugelhupf · Joined: 24 Jan 2004 Posts: 575 Location: Jabotabek

No, but it doesn't surprise me that copies are being hawked like this.

The UAN is a bad joke - especially the 'new improved' English KBK (competency based curriculum). I currently work for a natplus school that uses the national curriculum and it is a major reason why I'm leaving at the end of this year to join an IB school.

So long as schools and students can buy high school graduations Indonesia will remain a third world country with third world aspirations. Rant, rant, fizz fume.

voltaire · Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 5:49 am Post subject:

Salam · Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 2:20 pm Post subject:

"Meanwhile on the practice books of old tests they got pictures on the back cover of all these djilbab with two or three PhDs from Stanford and such places. who allegedly wrote this crap. What's going on here?"

Maybe, like many things in this country, they are just paid to put their names on it and possibly haven't even seen the booklet, or only a heavily checked sample.

One of my students was telling me last week that a friend of his paid for an answer sheet last time. Cost him one million rupiah. What he didn't know was that there is Test A, Test B, Test C, etc., and he hadn't bought the right one. Quite funny really.

gugelhupf · Joined: 24 Jan 2004 Posts: 575 Location: Jabotabek

No names, no pack drill - but I know a student who twice failed a year at two NatPlus schools and never even made it into the final year of high school.

He is now enrolled at a certain private university having richly greased the palm of Diknas officials for a high school graduation certificate. Said university has excellent PR but hideously low admission criteria and a surprisingly high graduation rate.

A dirty trick in some education districts is the 'Try-out Bersama' where all schools in the district participate in a mock UAN test from which the answer sheets go back to Diknas. On these sheets students are asked to fill in their name and contact telephone number. Slimey minor officials then call the numbers and ask if students might consider paying for some 'extra help'.

beefer · Joined: 10 Feb 2006 Posts: 238 Location: java

a fair number of my students come from the makassar area, and year after year they seem to be the ones bringing in the answer sheets onto the campus for everyone. i know the answers are easily available everywhere but it seems to have become a "tradition" for the makassar students to be responsible for getting them here.
apparently (according to some current students...that don't speak any english) there is a parent of a former student who basically gives them ( the answer sheets) to any and everyone....i can't stop things like this from happening, but its frustrating at this time of year; since the seniors have the answers, they refuse to come to class anymore and just hang out in the dormitory all day ........and our first and second year students see them do this and fully expect to do the same thing next year

...and still, the director ( who is nice but also very aloof) always asks us (the teachers),whats wrong with the students motivation?
what could possibly motivate a student to study for something they will already have the answer to?

gugelhupf · Joined: 24 Jan 2004 Posts: 575 Location: Jabotabek

And I have the task this morning of explaining to students who are about to sit the 'try-out bersama' English test that they need to read the questions carefully because they are written in English that is significantly poorer than the students' own. The listening component, however, is just bootlegged straight from an old TOEFL paper test prep book and I have to explain that question 1 on the paper corresponds with question 51 on the tape, and that they should ignore the noisy clunking and clicking between each question.

How much do they pay for this sh1t?! I could knock a test like that together during lunch. Allegedly this was produced and checked by some 'Universitas'.

beefer · Joined: 10 Feb 2006 Posts: 238 Location: java

voltaire · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 7:45 am Post subject:

So who's doing Sandra now?

gugelhupf · Joined: 24 Jan 2004 Posts: 575 Location: Jabotabek

Hee hee! The test I had yesterday was allegedly produced and checked by Universitas Budi Luhur.

Never heard of them previously but I looked up their website and, quelle surpris, they don't even have an English department!