SEMINAR: Asian Studies Semiar Series

The lively public discourse on academic cheating in Indonesia is focused on the National Examination, which is a standardized test organised for Year-9 and Year-12 students. However, since the focus is too narrow, other behaviours that may actually have developed into a pervasive cheating problem have been overlooked. In 2015 the Indonesian government introduced a new twist to the problem by stating that cheating in the National Exam could be one of the causes of the country’s corruption problem. This thesis looks at patterns of actions and beliefs regarding academic cheating shared by students, teachers, and parents in two senior secondary schools in Indonesia. The findings of this study show that cheating in schools in Indonesia is indeed beyond the scope of the National Exam. The pervasiveness of the problem can be partly explained by looking at the dynamics of the social relationships of the students. As for government’s claim on the cause-and-effect relationship between academic cheating and corruption, opportunism and individual collectivism identified in both schools could become the enabling elements.