Students of Pulau Sembilan Kotabaru travel by sea for 17 hours for UNBK

Students get off a motorboat that takes them from their hometown around a group of islands in the Kotabaru District, South Kalimantan. Motorboats are the main means of transportation for students to reach their schools on different islands. (ANTARA PHOTOS doc.).

There's a sea toll boat, but it's off schedule. So we have to take the initiative to look for fishing boats,

Kotabaru, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - Illustration. Fishing boats in Kotabaru, South Kalimantan. (ANTARA PHOTOS/Sahrul Manda Tikupadang/nz/16)

Students of state junior high school SMPN 2 Pulau Sembilan, Kotabaru, South Kalimantan, had to sail the sea for 17 hours to be able to take the Computer Based National Examination (UNBK) in the district capital.

Head school of SMPN 2 Pulau Sembilan Abdul Latif said on Wednesday he and 18 students and four accompanying teachers departed from Matasirih Island on Friday (19/4) by a fishing boat.

"There's a sea toll boat, but it's off schedule. So we have to take the initiative to look for fishing boats," he said in Kotabaru on Wednesday.

The students and the teacher sat in a row on the narrow hatch of the ship and the big waves hit along the road, so that the ship's passengers were seasick even vomiting.

The ship carrying them also had a problem with one of the engines, but luckily the position was close to the destination and they finally arrived safely the next day.

Abdul Latif revealed, his party could not implement UNBK independently because of the absence of computer equipment, plus the constraints of electricity and telecommunications networks. They forced to take UNBK in Kotabaru.

"We expect the government to come down immediately to see our situation. When shade it is not a problem, but if strong winds and big waves came like yesterday we leave but we were very worried," he said.

On the other hand, students of SMPN 2 Pulau Sembilan still use computers and have only learned them before the exam. Although there was a simulation phase before the implementation of UNBK, they did not even participate because of cost constraints.

"I just learned on Monday before the exam, but for a while we were all able to. It's better to use a computer, if it's based on writing will takes a long time, I think the simplest one is using a computer," said Halmahera, one of the students.