Educators mixed over new school term system

Educators mixed over new school term system

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Starting on Monday, about two million students from kindergarten
to high schools in Jakarta will begin a new school year with the
semester system instead of the quarter system, which is expected
to help students learn their subjects more deeply.

"The new decree aims at giving some leeway to the teachers to
implement the curriculum effectively and thoroughly so that the
students master the subjects in depth," said Iing Ahmad Mumkin,
Head of the elementary school division at the City Education
Agency.

With a longer term, Iing said, the teachers would no longer
feel rushed to accomplish the objectives required by the
curriculum.

"Besides, fewer examinations in the new term also gives relief
to parents who have already been burdened with too many costs in
the past, especially exam fees," Iing said.

However, Iing added, the new term requires teachers to be more
creative to use the existing leeway to boost competence of the
students in the respective subjects.

Herman Yoseph, a principal of state junior high school 57 in
Guntur, South Jakarta, expressed his pessimism that the new term
would improve the quality of the education.

"The new term offers no fundamental changes in the practice of
teaching activities in the classroom," said Herman, adding that
the teachers as well as the students would still use the same
books and curriculum.

Similarly, Nahijah, a principal of a state elementary school
in West Jakarta, complained that the new term could spell
trouble.

"Elementary school students can easily memorize things, but
they also easily forget those things, so we need shorter terms to
help refresh their memories over the subjects," she explained.

Nahijah said a semester would be too long for elementary
students. "They will get really bored."

She also expressed concern that the new term would also mean
less frequent meetings between parents and school teachers to
discuss the students' progress.

Tati, a mother, believes that the quarter system is better
because students need breaks to play and relax to be able to
digest the lessons.

"A short period of study coupled with proper time to relax
will enable them (the students) to get maximum results in their
study," Tati said, adding that the students would always be fresh
when it came time to study.

However, another teacher, Ali Arsyad lauded the new term as it
would reduce his headaches in rushing to achieve the targets
required by the curriculum.

"Instead of examinations at the end of every fourth month, we
can have examinations every month to ensure the students mastery
over the subjects," said Ali of state junior high school 229 in
Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta.

Ali, however, thought that the new term could backfire if the
control towards the implementation of the program was weak.

"Tight monitoring and control of teachers will be necessary.
Otherwise, teachers could forget the tasks to regularly check
their students' mastery of the subjects," said Ali.

With a longer term, Ali said, lazy teachers could hold all the
examinations in the last month of the semester.

The new system is stipulated by the new Ministry of National
Education Decree No. 84, 2002.

Previously, in the 1984 curriculum, the Ministry of Education
and Culture had implemented a semester system for junior high
school and high school. In the 1994 curriculum, it changed to a
quarter term, like the system for elementary schools, Iing said.

Data from the Jakarta chapter of the Central Bureau of
Statistic in 2000 shows that there were 89,000 kindergarten
students and 820,000 elementary students. Jakarta Junior high
schools had 380,000 and high schools had 500,000.