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An Education Ministry official said on Thursday that calls to cancel the high school national exams were unwarranted and that students should not worry because the exams were “not that hard.”

“The questions have already been adjusted to the standard curriculum,” said Mansyur Ramli, head of the research and development division at the ministry. “And students are only required to fulfill the minimum standard. They don’t have to aim for the highest.”

His comments were made in response to an advocacy group’s demands that the exams, scheduled to begin on Monday, be canceled until a number of conditions in the country’s education system and school facilities were improved.

The group forwarded a written request to the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday to warn the government that it must uphold a 2009 Supreme Court ruling that ordered schools to improve a range of conditions, including the quality of teachers and facilities.

The advocacy team took the Supreme Court decision to mean exams would be halted until those improvements were made, while the government argued the ruling was contingent on improvements that it claimed had already taken place.

In January 2010, following a request for clarification by the national exam working committee at House of Representatives Commission X, which oversees education, the Supreme Court came down on the side of the government, saying its verdict did not mean the exams should be delayed.

Edy Halomoan Gurning, from the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH), a member of the advocacy group, said the group had been monitoring the ministry and schools for improvements.

“But as you can see, there have been none. The school buildings are dilapidated, and there is still a gross lack of teachers in different parts of the country,” Edy said, adding that the ministry should work on upgrading the quality of teachers, infrastructure and supervision of exams.

Mansyur said the Education Ministry was already spending money on these improvements. “Most of our budget is already allocated to equip schools,” he said, adding that the requested improvements would take time.

The case stems from a 2007 lawsuit filed by a group of students and parents at the Central Jakarta District Court.

They sought the cancellation of the exams because they felt it unfair to set standardized exams when the quality of teaching varied widely from region to region and when cheating among students was rampant. They said the widespread cheating proved that there was a lack of supervision by both teachers and the ministry.

Thousands of students from 34 schools in eight provinces were found to have cheated on the national exams in 2009 by using answers they had bought from a syndicate claiming to have a copy of the test. The answers turned out to be wrong, but the students were given the chance to retake the exams.

The Supreme Court ruling had millions of parents in a panic in early 2010 ahead of the national exams.

The Supreme Court chief, Harifin Tumpa, sought to clarify the issue in a statement that the ruling “never ordered [the exams] to be halted.”

He said the government could go ahead with its plan to hold the exams in March 2010. But the statement caused further confusion by adding that the court ruling instructed the government to improve the nation’s education system and school facilities, as well as conducting an evaluation, “before holding the national exams.”