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UNBK : An Alternative Way to Reduce Paper Usage |
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by Dyah Reza Lestari | 01-05-2018 01:49
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Computer Based Test (Ujian Nasional Berbasis Komputer - UNBK in Bahasa) is a government program to administer national exam system which uses computer as the test media. The program was initially conducted in 2014 and still running until now. In 2014, Computer Based Test was only held in Junior High School in Indonesia Singapore and Indonesia Kuala Lumpur. Then, in 2015-2017, the number of schools which implemented Computer Based Test were escalating quickly, although it mostly applied in schools in big cities because some schools in the remote areas still have problems due to lack of computer and access of internet. However, in 2018, the program continues to keep going and improving at this time, so almost of schools in Indonesia can oganize the national exam using computer.
From technological advances point of view, Computer Based Test is more compatible with the current technological developments in Indonesia and also fits well with students' ability who are highly skilled to use computer and internet. It could be said that Computer Based Test is very convenient for them because they only have to click the computer to choose the best answers, so it will save their times because they are no longer need to fill out the paper with pencil. Despite the facts, internet interruptions, computer errors, and lack of computers are still occuring in some schools, thus several students feel less-satisfied with this test system. This further encourages the government to keep making enhancements of the system, so this program can continue to be implemented in the future.
If we look more deeply, Computer Based Test is not only facilitate students but also give enormous benefits to the country. The transition from Paper Based Test to Computer Based Test can save more of the government's budget. The government can reduce the huge costs because Indonesian government do not have to spend much money to print a lot of exam papers and distribute the exam papers to all schools that cost a lot. By switching to computer, the government can allocate that budget to another sectors or perhaps it can be used to provide good internet access.
In addition, this program not only gives advantages to the country financially, but also brings great news for the environment, because this test system is very environmentally friendly. As it is known that before using computers as test media, the national exam in Indonesia was Paper Based Test. Let's imagine how much of papers have been used and how many of trees have been cut down to make all of those exam papers. As additional information, the consumption of paper in Indonesia per capita is 27 kg/person/year or 11 rim/11 trees' trunks with the amount of paper's waste per day reaches 17 thousand tons. This implies that paper consumption in Indonesia remains at a very high level in daily life. Therefore, by using computer instead of paper can be regarded as one of the alternative ways in order to reduce the excessive production of paper. Indonesia itself is the first country to apply Computer Based Test on a large scale. Hopefully this program will continue to be held along with the improvement of system and regulation. Moreover, it is expected this way can be followed by other countries to be able to reduce paper usage and excessive trees' logging.
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P.s Sorry for the late 2nd report for April because I've been busy doing some stuffs. :) |
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7 Comments
Thank you for always giving positive feedbacks, Joon Ho Mentor. Yes, you're right, but I think that the government doesn't even have to buy more computers (except for some schools in the remote areas that still didn't have computers) because the student can use the facilities which already exist in their schools. It's because most of schools in Indonesia have had computers in their lab classes. So, the student can use the computers' school to do the national exam. Besides that, in this program, the government conducts national exam into sessions (it can be 2 / 3 shifts per day depends on the number of students in each school), so the computers' school can be used interchangeably. Furthermore, some schools allow their students to bring their own laptop / notebook (because most of students have their own laptop these days), so the remain computers can be used by other students. The government also said that some schools that didn't have enough computers can use the facilities from other schools by applying sharing facilities with other schools. As I understand it, this alternative way of using computer instead of paper is really worth to try in the developing countries. Thank you :)
Posted 22-05-2018 23:51
Hi there, Gyeongrin Mentor! Really appreciate your kind words. Thanks!
Posted 22-05-2018 22:57
Hi, Sumit & Bharat! Many thanks for reading my report :)
Posted 22-05-2018 22:04
Hello Dyah!
I believe that computer based education could be a good method if it is to be seen in a long term period project. The environmental cost should be delicately calculated and compared between paper testing and computer testing by its service life!
Thanks for the report :)
Posted 02-05-2018 11:55
Hello Dyah, quite a couple of ambassadors are mentioning computer based education and test taking, and I do think this is 'alternative option' to reduce paper usage, too
We can approach paper usage issue in 2 ways : economical and environment-friendly.
However, an individual can use a single computer, and 2 or more people cannot use computers when they read something else with concentration or make out some individual projects by using specific computer programs.
This is ironic in some means that we need expensive and use bunch of resource in buying computers for not using papers, but using fossil fuels and other resources that trigger climate change and collateral environmental problems is troublesome somehow.
As it is just 'alternative option', it is not perfect to solve paper usage problem.
What else can there be more that we can think of to solve it?! :)
Posted 02-05-2018 05:46
Thanks for sharing.
Posted 01-05-2018 09:17
Very good and promising initiative by the government! Developing countries should conduct this method of testing.
Posted 01-05-2018 02:09