Few students show interest in math, physics
Few students show interest in math, physics
JAKARTA (JP): Poor physics and math skills among Indonesian
students could obstruct the country's high technology development
drive, a high-ranking education research official warned
yesterday.
"Above all, students have very little interest in physics and
math," Sri Hardjoko Wirjomartono, head of the Research and
Development Center of the Ministry of Education and Culture told
a seminar on human resources here yesterday.
Five Hundred students, teachers and government officials
attended the seminar, which was opened by Minister of Education
and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro.
The seminar, sponsored by Atmajaya Foundation, is part of the
senior high school scientific program's physics and math
competitions in Jakarta and West Java.
According to Sri, a nation which is facing the age of
industrialization era needs human resources who have mastered
high technology.
"Therefore, the country should prepare human resources in the
high technology sectors at the earliest stage," he added.
He said when Indonesia signed the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) agreement recently, Indonesia opened itself up
to foreign capital and human resources. "In this case, we need
highly competitive people with strong backgrounds in physics and
math."
Data collected by the ministry in 1993 and 1994 in a
nationwide evaluation of students show poor scores for physics
and math in elementary, junior and senior high schools.
The average scores, from a grading scale of one to 10, were
5.5 for grade schools, 4.0 for junior high schools, and 4.8 for
senior high schools, compared to the scores for social studies,
which averaged 6.8, 6.5, and 6.8.
The inability of teachers to explain the subjects and a lack
of facilities for practice contribute to the problem, Sri said.
"We have requested US$250 million from the World Bank to
finance an educational development program especially for these
subjects," Sri told The Jakarta Post after the speech.
Joko Budoyo, a senior high school teacher of math, said that
most students cannot relate the theories they learn at school to
daily life, for example, trading activities.
One of the students attending the seminar told the Post that
she and her classmates are afraid of physics and math.
The student, who identified herself as Yola, said that besides
the subjects being so difficult, the teachers "are usually too
rigid." (03/10)