forget about the test, just educate!

Perhaps you already aware about 'cheating scandal' in Indonesian national exams very recently. (see the news in Indonesian here and here, or in English is here). The irony is still persist and even stronger, I believe. While the Ministry of Education indirectly denied such wide spread phenomenon, it already taken into a next level of undeniably a collective action in some society in Indonesia. The case of Al and his mother Siami in Gresik, East Java is probably only one in many cases that eventually exposed in public, yet it seems not making the authority change their mind or even curious with the situation.

Despite of all facts or arguments regarding the cheating case, I believe we need to start to change our question a little bit further back. You maybe try so hard to find out the way to avoid cheating or looking for something as an incentive to increase honesty or kejujuran (the Ministry of education use this term, but I really hate it!). Instead, I prefer what Dan Ariely conclude in his article about teachers cheating and incentives:

"Maybe it is time to think more carefully about how we want to educate in the first place, and stop worrying so much about tests"

In other words, we forgot why we send those kids to school since it seems that now we tell them to go to school to pass the minimum score exam and just obtain the diploma. We never tell them why they need to read, to learn or even to play... Poor Indonesian children.