Berita di Jakarta Post, 9 Agustus 2007

Teachers fired for reporting national exam cheating

National News - August 09, 2007

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Instead of being praised for uncovering cheating at a number of schools during the 2007 national exams, 13 North Sumatra teachers have been discharged and 14 others have had their teaching hours reduced.

Most of teachers said Monday they were surprised by the firings, saying the schools that employed them failed to give clear and compelling reasons for the move.

Jhon Hendra, 26, one of the fired teachers, said that before he was discharged on Aug. 6, he had his working hours be cut from 20 to only four hours per day.

Hendra, a former teacher at Pharmacy Senior High School (SMF) Yapen in Medan, said the sanctions were handed down to him after the start of the new school year.

"I have been treated unfairly by the school management. I suspect my dismissal has something to do with my reports on cheating at Pharmacy Senior High School Pharmaca during the exams," said Hendra.

The teacher, who had worked at the school for a year-and-a-half, said he was appointed to supervise the national exams at SMF Yapen. He said while doing the job he found the school was distributing a number of exam answers to students.

He said he was then summoned by representatives of the school management and told to keep his discoveries a secret.

"I could not conceal the cheating at the exams. Together with other teachers, gathered together in the Teachers' Tear Community, we revealed the cheating to the public through the media," he said.

Hendra said his disclosure of the cheating was aimed at maintaining the quality of Indonesian education.

Denni B. Saragih, coordinator of the Teachers' Tear Community, said that his organization would take legal action over the issue.

He said the first lawsuit would be aimed at Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo and representatives of the schools who had fired and reduced the teaching hours of the teachers.

Denni said the lawsuits would be filed against 30 schools, including Timbul Jaya senior high school (SMA), SMAN 17 Medan, SMPN 19 Medan, SMK TI Bina Satria, SMK Medan Putri, SMK Budi Agung, SMP Marisi Medan and SMA Amir Hamzah.

"We have signed a contract with the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PHBI) to arrange for the filing of the lawsuits. The documents will be registered with the court as soon as possible," Denni said.

Denni said that the education minister would be included in the lawsuit because unclear policy from his department lead to the teachers' dismissal.

"I'm curious as to why the minister didn't hand down any sanctions to the schools where the cheating was uncovered. The minister himself admitted during a hearing with members of the House of Representatives that 25 types of cheating were found during the exams," he said.

"But not even a single school has been sanctioned," Denni said.