SNMPTN dihapus, UNAS dibenahi

Seleksi Nasional Masuk Perguruan Tinggi Negeri diharapkan bisa dihapus pada tahun 2012 karena seleksi masuk perguruan tinggi negeri diintegrasikan dengan ujian nasional. Namun, sebelum pola ini diterapkan, pelaksanaan ujian nasional harus dibenahi terlebih dahulu

Menteri Pendidikan Nasional Mohammad Nuh, Jumat (6/11), saat menyampaikan Program 100 Hari Menteri Pendidikan Nasional mengatakan, polemik masalah ujian nasional (UN) ini tak akan pernah selesai. Selalu ada pro dan kontra.

”Daripada membahas perbedaan pandangan, akan jauh lebih baik jika berkonsentrasi pada upaya membuat UN lebih baik dan dapat dipercaya,” ujarnya.

Untuk menjamin hasil UN dapat menjadi bahan penilaian ujian masuk perguruan tinggi negeri (PTN), Majelis Rektor Perguruan Tinggi Negeri Indonesia akan terlibat aktif sejak awal penyusunan soal, pengawasan, hingga evaluasi pelaksanaan UN. Kehadiran PTN pada dasarnya ikut melengkapi dan menyempurnakan proses UN sehingga tidak ada lagi kecurangan-kecurangan. ”Jika hasil UN bisa dipercaya, tidak ada alasan bagi PTN untuk menolak integrasi ini,” kata Nuh.

Tidak langsung

Jika hasil UN dapat dipercaya, kemungkinan besar Seleksi Nasional Masuk Perguruan Tinggi Negeri (SNMPTN) akan dihapuskan pada tahun 2012. Namun, Ketua Umum SNMPTN 2009 Haris Supratno menegaskan bahwa SNMPTN tidak bisa langsung hilang, tetapi akan dilakukan bertahap.

”Benahi dulu pelaksanaan UN. Harapannya 2010 hasil UN, khususnya SMA, bisa dipercaya. Jika sudah bisa dipercaya, tentu tidak ada alasan untuk menunggu sampai tahun 2012. Lebih cepat lebih baik,” kata Haris, yang juga rektor Universitas Negeri Surabaya itu.

Wacana integrasi sistem pendidikan ini sudah disosialisasikan sejak 2008 dan kalangan rektor PTN telah sepakat melaksanakan ”bebas SNMPTN 2012”. Untuk mencapai target itu, rektor PTN di seluruh Indonesia akan mengawasi titik-titik rawan kecurangan, seperti pencetakan hingga distribusi soal. Selain itu, para rektor pun akan membantu guru membuat soal-soal UN.

kompas.com

Susunan Kabinet Indonesia Bersatu 2.0

Berikut ini daftar menteri dan pejabat negara dalam kabinet baru yang akan menjabat pada periode tahun 2009-2014.

1. Menko Politik, Hukum, dan Keamanan: Marsekal TNI Purn Djoko Suyanto
2. Menko Perekonomian: Hatta Rajasa
3. Menko Kesra: Agung Laksono
4. Menteri Sekretaris Negara: Sudi Silalahi
5. Menteri Dalam Negeri: Gamawan Fauzi
6. Menteri Luar Negeri: Marty Natalegawa
7. Menteri Pertahanan: Purnomo Yusgiantoro
8. Menteri Hukum dan HAM: Patrialis Akbar
9. Menteri Keuangan: Sri Mulyani
10. Menteri Energi dan Sumber Daya Mineral: Darwin Zahedy Saleh
11. Menteri Perindustrian: MS Hidayat
12. Menteri Perdagangan: Mari Elka Pangestu
13. Menteri Pertanian: Suswono
14. Menteri Kehutanan: Zulkifli Hasan
15. Menteri Perhubungan: Freddy Numberi
16. Menteri Kelautan dan Perikanan: Fadel Muhammad
17. Menteri Tenaga Kerja dan Transmigrasi: Muhaimin Iskandar
18. Menteri Pekerjaan Umum: Djoko Kirmanto
19. Menteri Kesehatan: Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih
20. Menteri Pendidikan Nasional: M Nuh
21. Menteri Sosial: Salim Segaf Aljufrie
22. Menteri Agama: Suryadharma Ali
23. Menteri Kebudayaan dan Pariwisata: Jero Wacik
24. Menteri Komunikasi dan Informatika: Tifatul Sembiring
25. Menneg Riset dan Teknologi: Suharna Surapranata
26. Menteri Negara Urusan Koperasi dan UKM: Syarifudin Hasan
27. Menneg Lingkungan Hidup: Gusti Moh Hatta
28. Menneg Pemberdayaan Perempuan dan Perlindungan Anak: Linda Agum Gumelar
29. Menneg Pendayagunaan Aparatur Negara dan Reformasi Birokrasi: EE Mangindaan
29. Menneg Pembangunan Daerah Tertinggal: Helmy Faisal Zaini
31. Menneg PPN/Kepala Bappenas: Armida Alisjahbana
32. Menneg BUMN: Mustafa Abubakar
33. Menneg Perumahan Rakyat: Suharso Manoarfa
34. Menneg Pemuda dan Olahraga: Andi Mallarangeng

Pejabat Negara:
1. Ketua Unit Kerja Presiden Pengawasan dan Pengendalian Pembangunan: Kuntoro Mangkusubroto
2. Kepala BIN (Badan Intelijen Negara): Jenderal Pol Purn Sutanto
3. Kepala BKPM (Badan Koordinasi Penanaman Modal): Gita Wirjawan

The Lost Symbol

We may assume that Dan Brown knew precisely what he was doing when he slipped an early reference into his fifth novel to “the Philosopher’s Stone” — in this case the original mythic alchemical device but also a clear nod to J. K. Rowling.

For only the Harry Potter books come close to matching the mania and marketing hype surrounding The Lost Symbol — 6.5 million hardback copies of which have been printed ready to strain thumbs on buses, trains and planes around the world.

This is the third adventure in capital cities for the Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, who took in Paris and London in The Da Vinci Code and Rome in Angels and Demons. The cover artwork of The Lost Symbol, featuring the Capitol Building and a masonic key, has had hyperventilating Brownophiles speculating wildly since it was first seen in April. The novel has our hero summoned to Washington to give a lecture on architectural symbolism, thence sucked into a 12-hour national security crisis that takes in noetic science, the ancient mysteries and a giant pickled squid.

As with Langdon’s previous escapades, tourist-friendly secrets are hidden in plain view. We get the “deification” of George Washington, as seen in the Apotheosis of Washington fresco in the Capitol, and a mural showing him laying a cornerstone in “a full masonic ritual”. Expect Lost Symbol walking tours within the week.

Brown writes genre fiction but his Langdon thrillers are laced with art history as well as political and theological fact, making their dismissal as junk both patronising and misleading. If anything, The Lost Symbol is too heavy on the footnotes. The pace of the unfolding jeopardy — a kidnapped mentor, a dismembered, pointing hand, a ruthless tattooed ghoul — is slowed down, rather than dumbed down, by all the exposition. The balance between story, puzzle-solving and Open University course was well maintained in the previous two books; less so here.

Early on, Langdon mocks students for having visited Rome, Paris and London but not their own capital city. Brown seems to be saying to his US readers: “Langdon’s coming home.” He even manages a gag at the expense of his own novel’s long gestation, when Langdon’s publisher bemoans a lack of manuscript and asks him: “Why can’t you just stay at home and write?” Naysayers may simply ask, why can’t Dan Brown write?

It’s true, his style is as baldly prosaic as legend, but there remains a heft to his potboilers that is hard to imitate. He is better at conveying claustrophobia and breathlessness than, say, the explosion of a top-secret lab (“fragments of titanium mesh . . . droplets of melted silicon” etc) but the latter will make a juicier scene come the inevitable Tom Hanks movie, and the author knows this.

The Lost Symbol will not bring down the US Government with its sugared depiction of masonic influence (“When different cultures are killing each other over whose definition of God is better, one could say the masonic tradition of tolerance . . . is commendable”) but it will divert millions from more pressing matters. Since the hype was begun by fans, we have only ourselves to blame if the latest reconfiguration of a proven formula doesn’t live up to expectations.

entertainment.timesonline.co.uk