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)