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)