Banda Aceh (ANTARA News) - Syah Kuala University (Unsyiah) Rector Prof Darni M Daud has said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should appoint a deputy for national education minister.

"I think National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh should have a deputy because he has big task and responsibility in the national education program that determines the fate of the nation in the future," Darni said here on Saturday.

He made the statement in response to President Yudhoyono`s plan to appoint deputy ministers for certain ministries.

Darni was of the opinion that the National Education Ministry was the biggest institution which has a large number of employees and programs to educate national children to become future leaders.

Therefore, he said there should be deputies for professional ministers to improve their tasks and responsibilities.

According to Darni, the responsibility of the National Education Ministry at present was big enough to improve the declining quality of the national education.

He pointed out that the quality of education in Indonesia was at an alarming level and therefore a hard-work was needed to make it even better.

"Our education quality at present is less competitive than that of Vietnam, and much less inferior than that of Malaysia and Singapore," Darni said.

Therefore, he added that the national education minister should make a big strategy to implement all existing programs.

"Our program to improve the quality of education in the country is good enough and therefore it should be implemented well and correctly," he said.

Commenting on the National Examination (UN) program, Darni said it was good enough to evaluate the extent to which the quality of education in the country had been achieved but in reality it was misunderstood.

"The National Examination program functions as the standard of passing students in addition to measuring the students` ability to absorb teaching materials," he said, adding that it should be maintained.(*)