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)