Expert hails plan for new IKIP status

Expert hails plan for new IKIP status

JAKARTA (JP): Education expert Marsetio Donoseputro welcomes
the government's plan to turn the state-run Teachers Training
Institutes (IKIP) into full-fledged universities.

The plan, announced by Minister of Education and Culture
Wardiman Djojonegoro last week, will place less emphasis on
teaching subjects and more on the subjects being studied by
students.

Marsetio, who once represented Indonesia in the United Nations
Education, Science and Cultural Organization (Unesco), told
Antara over the weekend that a curriculum change will not make
the graduates less qualified as teachers.

The key to becoming a good teacher lies more in mastering the
subject one is teaching, and not so much in one's understanding
of the art of teaching, said Marsetio, who is also a member of
the House of Representatives.

He recalled that the best teachers during the Dutch colonial
days did not receive as much pedagogical training as present-day
teachers. "But they became exceptionally good teachers because
they truly mastered the subjects they were teaching."

Wardiman said at least five of the government's 10 IKIPs -- in
Padang, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Malang and Manado -- have expressed
their readiness to be upgraded to university status. The plan
entails greater spending and will begin by upgrading three
institutes, he said without specifying which schools.

Under the plan, each IKIP will establish schools according to
subject, from mathematics and engineering to economics and
literature. The first six semesters will be used primarily to
teach students their chosen subjects and the last two semesters
will be dedicated to pedagogy subjects.

Because the six semesters of coursework is equal to a three-
year diploma from a regular university, the broadened curriculum
is also intended to help prepare IKIP graduates in finding jobs
outside of the teaching profession.

Wardiman said the 10 IKIPs and dozens of privately-run teacher
training colleges produce about 43,000 graduates each year. Of
these, only 26,000 find jobs in the teaching profession.

Marsetio, a former rector of the state-run Airlangga
University in Surabaya, said that an IKIP student should not
spend more than 10 percent of his time on teaching subjects.
Although, he added, teachers will be expected to "truly master
their subjects."

Meanwhile, IKIP Yogyakarta said on Saturday that it hoped to
become one of the first institutes to be upgraded.

IKIP Yogyakarta rector Djohar M.S. was quoted by Antara as
saying that his institute has been preparing for the move since
1990.

The idea to change the institute into a university first
emerged in the 1970s, Djohar said.

A number of private teachers training and education institutes
have changed into universities over the past few years. (01)