Congress gives teachers lots of homework

Congress gives teachers lots of homework

By Santi W.E. Soekanto

UJUNGPANDANG, South Sulawesi (JP): Education experts concluded
their congress yesterday with a number of unfinished tasks,
including the question of how to lobby the government to bolster
education spending.

Participants at the third National Convention on Education
called on the government to establish a foundation to raise funds
in support of the nine-year compulsory education program in some
of the lesser developed areas in eastern Indonesia.

"The program calls for more professional management and
sufficient attention from relevant government officials, from the
national level to the smallest villages," read a declaration
issued at the end of the four-day congress.

"Public participation is key to the program's success. We
need to mobilize the potential of the public and private sectors,
wealthy members of society as well as the intellectual community
to support the program."

The educators also called on the government to increase
education spending.

Although education is one of the main priorities of government
spending, the total amount spent represents a meager 0.6 percent
of the gross domestic product.

"We are not going to ask the government to increase it to the
same level as, say, Malaysia, because we understand Indonesia is
different. It spans a very large area and its people are so
diverse," said A. Suhaenah Suparno, one of the organizers. "But
yes we'd like an increase to improve the education program."

Participants from all 27 provinces recommended a "redefinition
of science of education" to accommodate rapid changes.

"The science of education needs to be enriched with elements
from other sciences so that concepts can be translated into a
praxis more relevant to present-day needs," Suhaenah told The
Jakarta Post.

The declaration said religious values and the state ideology
Pancasila should remain at the heart of the national education
system.

"The teaching of Pancasila and religious and moral values
should be done in a comprehensive manner to shape Indonesians who
are modern and religious," the educators said.

On the quality of teachers, the congress said the existing
teachers training institutes should be "expanded and
strengthened" so they can produce graduates with greater academic
and professional authority.

The dozens of recommendations as well as the declaration drawn
up in the convention will be submitted to President Soeharto, the
Ministry of Education and Culture, the House of Representatives
and other policy makers.

"We will translate the concepts into workable plans and
programs and submit them to relevant agencies and ask them to be
implemented," Suhaenah said.

This was the third education convention, which is held every
four years. The first was in 1988 in Bandung, the second in 1992
in Medan. The next will take place in Jakarta in 2000.

Earlier, during a discussion on innovation and technological
developments, Toeti Soekamto of the Jakarta Teachers Training
Institute (IKIP) said that the hundreds of studies conducted on
the learning process over the past 20 years have yet to be
applied in the classroom.

IKIP Jakarta alone did 250 studies on innovative teaching
methods between 1980 and 1987. Yet, most schools still follow
the teacher-centered tradition, she said.

"There's a gap between what's found in the costly studies and
what's really going on in society," Toeti said.

"This conclusion lends credibility to the adage that
universities are ivory towers separated from the community, and
whose research doesn't affect the real world," she said.

Many researchers fail to disseminate their studies, the
results of which are often not even understood or applied by
teachers, she said.

She suggested that teachers join more training programs to
become familiar with and able to apply the most effective
teaching methods.