•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

One afternoon last April, Farida noticed some boys from her son Jeffry’s school huddled together on her terrace. She went to see what they were doing and was a bit miffed by what she found.

“They were writing notes on white label stickers,” she said.

Farida remembers questioning the boys, then in their last year of high school.

“My son told me his friends were preparing cheat notes for the exams on the labels, which they would later stick under their belts,” she said.

The boys did not seem embarrassed in the slightest. “I asked how they could be so sure the test answers would match what they wrote,” the 52-year-old said.

“They said, ‘Well, we are not sure but, bismillah [in the name of God], hopefully they will be the answers.’ ”

Such cheating went on in at least 36 schools around the country during the recent national exams. The details of the cheating came to light when university supervisors found that thousands of students had given the same wrong answers for the exams in April. The students, who were fed answer keys by unidentified sources, were given the opportunity to redo their tests in sessions that ended on Monday.

Students’ casual attitude toward cheating can be years in the making. Lita, a high school student, said she still cheats during exams but not as much as she used to. “I cheat in history and Indonesian language,” said the 16-year-old, who attends a state high school in South Jakarta that is renowned for the intellectual abilities of its students.

“I don’t cheat in math and physics because they are formulaic, so I can do it myself,” Lita said.

She said her friends had a lot of tricks for cheating on exams. “To share answers with our friends, we use our fingers for multiple-choice problems. One finger is for A, two for B and so on,” she said. “Or we just write the answers on a bit of paper and throw it to our friends. Some girls also write notes on their thighs.” More modern methods include using text messages and, if the same exam is held on different days, photographing the test paper using a cellphone camera, Lita said. “It’s a barter. They take turns.”

Lita said she was lured into cheating by her friends. “I always study for exams,” she said. “I may know the answers, but if my friends are using cheat notes, it’s tempting to do the same.”

Nanie Khaerani, an English teacher at State Senior High School 8 in Jakarta, said cheating students generally had a poor sense of moral responsibility.

“You can boil it down to dishonesty,” said Nanie, who has been teaching at the school for nine years.

Nanie said she has the reputation of being a stickler for the rules.

“So when I have to supervise the test of another class, I’ll often hear comments like ‘Oh, not her, please ...’ ” she said with a laugh.

Any student of hers who is seen glancing around during a test will first be given a warning, she said. If they do it again, Nanie said she takes their test paper and tears it up.

Nanie said she had observed a number of cheating methods in action. “From [students] using their fingers for multiple-choice problems to going to the bathroom and then asking for the answers from another class,” she said. And her students are required to hand their cellphones in before an exam starts.

Utomo Dananjaya, an education theorist and director of the Institute for Education Reform at Paramadina University in Jakarta, said that it was difficult to get a handle on cheating because it was a systemic problem from the top down, starting with the heads of regions, education agencies and schools.

“In the national exams, they do it to attain the highest rank in their own region [at the provincial level],” Utomo said. “They want all the students to pass the exam.”

He said there had been numerous cases of teachers providing test answers. “There are teachers who write the answers on the board, dictate them to the students or send them out via SMS,” he said.

Utomo said that the recent examination scandal showed that helping students cheat could backfire.

“They [teachers] wanted to help their students but it turned out that the answers did not match the problems io the exam,” he said. “None of the students passed.”

Putri, a student at a state junior high school in Jember, East Java, said that some of the teachers there supplied students with either the answers, or clues to which questions would be on the test.

“They do it for the reputation of our school,” she said. “If a lot of students failed the national exam, that would be really bad for the school.”

As for Putri, she said while there were many forms of cheating in schools, she preferred to use her own brain power.

“I am very confident in myself,” she said. “I feel satisfied with what I have achieved so far and I don’t cheat.”

The 15-year-old blames the cheating that is now common in schools on the government.

“They make exams super-difficult. So, a lot of students feel the need to cheat, but then fail,” she said.

Putri said that academic cheating was also related to corruption within the government, as it had created conditions whereby many parents could not afford to buy nutritious food for their children.

“How do you expect them [poor students] to concentrate when they are not healthy?” she said. “Healthy people help their countries develop.

“But I guess here in Indonesia it is difficult. When you are corrupt, you are even willing to take your friends down with you.”

Cheater's Tips

-For multiple-choice problems, use your fingers. One finger is for A, two is for B and so forth.
-Write on a bit of paper or tissue paper and slip it to a buddy.
-Write on a bit of paper and conceal it in your pencil case.
-Send out the answers via SMS.
-For female students, write the answers on your thigh.
-For students wearing headscarves, record the answers on your cellphone and position the earphones underneath your scarf so you can listen to them unnoticed.
-If you want to be helpful to your friends in another class, photograph the test paper and give them a copy.
-Write on a white sticky label and stick it under your belt.
-Tell your teacher you need to go to the bathroom. While you are there, call or SMS your friends for the answers. Or, if you have more time, stop by at a friend’s class and ask for the answers in person.
-Put today’s newspaper on or near the teacher’s desk. It is very likely they will be bored enough to read it. And if they do, it’s your chance to get help from your friends.
-If you like a challenge, ask a teacher for the answers. Some of them will be happy to help.