Experts see need for hi-tech teaching facilities
Experts see need for hi-tech teaching facilities
UJUNGPANDANG (JP): The lack of basic schooling opportunities in many regions in Indonesia should not negate the increasing demands in urban areas for high-tech education facilities, such as the Internet or multimedia computers, according to experts.
"We have to handle every problem in education simultaneously," said Anah Suhaenah, a professor of education and rector of the state-owned Teacher Training College (IKIP) in Jakarta.
"The fact that there are children who cannot go to school does not mean we should neglect the needs of other children who are in a position to benefit from innovations in education," she said.
Citing famed futurologist Alvin Toffler, Anah said Indonesia is concurrently in three stages of development: agricultural, industrial and embarking on an era of life influenced by information super-highways.
"We need to provide education for all children in those varying stages of development," she said during a break at the third national convention on education, which opened here yesterday. "We need innovations just as much as basic facilities."
Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro said the use of hi-tech education and information facilities, such as the Internet and multimedia computers,is highly relevant to Indonesia's education system.
"There's a wide gap in the accessibility to information for Indonesia's population of 190 million," he told the Post. "We have to make every effort to meet the needs of every sector, we have to reach them in every way, including through the Internet."
Experts have, for several years, discussed the possible greater needs for the use of multimedia in education in the future. Using multimedia, which uses video, animation, still images, graphics, text and sound to convey information, is considered superior in several aspects to traditional classroom instruction.
Multimedia are also interactive and give users greater control over what and how much they want to see and hear, and where to go next. When discussing the human anatomy, for instance, students can see real-life images and movement.
Although the facilities are still very limited, they will be more widely available in Indonesia within ten to twenty years, an information technology expert told the Post.
The question of hi-tech education facilities is closely linked to the effort to increase not only the quantity of education, but also its quality.
Sukarna Syarif, head of the bureau of law and publicity of the ministry of education, said meeting the needs of gifted or disabled children is difficult because the national education program concentrates on the needs of average children.
"This is why we establish super-schools such as the Taruna Nusantara High School in Magelang," he said, referring to the military-owned school which caters for gifted children.
The ministry of education has for the past decade given mixed signals about the learning needs of the gifted. Former minister of education Fuad Hasan once said the gifted should be accommodated in special schools. At present, the ministry prefers to have gifted children skip grades rather than sending them to separate schools.
Mulyani Sumantri of the Teachers' Training College in Bandung, West Java, urged the government to deal with the question promptly. Another participant, from Malang, East Java, however, expressed concern that there might be people who "misuse" the notion of the need for quality education by establishing elitist, expensive schools.
"There are parents are prepared to pay millions of rupiah per month on their children's education which would enable them to have access to computers, riding lessons...everything, but is it fair on other children who cannot even go to school?" he said.
The convention, which will last until Thursday, is concentrating on the use of information technology development in education. (swe)