Government told to improve poor literacy rate

Government told to improve poor literacy rate

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Experts on education called for the government on Monday to
improve the ability of students in reading, mathematics and
science. They asked the government to focus on an educational
policy that is appropriate to every day life and to speed up the
realization of a minimum of 20 percent of the total state
budget's allocation for education.

"At the moment students must read materials that are not
really related to their life and immediate environment. Of course
the students have difficulty understanding what they read as the
information is not practical for them," education expert Winarno
Surakhmat said.

The Rector of Jakarta's State University, Sutjipto, agreed
with Winarno.

"Can you imagine many students still do not know the names of
trees in their own streets? Students in the final year of
elementary school in Jakarta can't understand what they read in
the newspaper. There must be something wrong with the reading
materials, the methodology of teachers or the school facilities,"
Sutjipto said.

According to him, if the education system was adequate, first
year students of elementary school would be able to read and to
understand newspapers in the Indonesian language.

He said the realization of an appropriate higher education
budget was also essential in improving education in the country.
An adequate budget would improve the quality of reading materials
(possibly providing cheap books for students) and improve other
facilities.

"Without such moves our students will be always left behind
their peers from other countries ... ," he said.

Winarno and Sutjipto were commenting on the recent survey of
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO)'s Program for International Student
Assessment (PISA) which showed that Indonesian students scored
relatively lowly in basic skills compared to their peers in other
countries.

The survey stated that 38 percent of Indonesian students
surveyed had serious difficulty in using reading as a tool to
advance and extend their knowledge and skills in other areas,
such as daily problem solving.

They couldn't comprehend information when it was presented in
an unfamiliar format and showed a difficulty in understanding
texts at the highest level of literacy.

Students in Finland were the world's best in terms of reading
literacy, followed by South Korea, Hong Kong and Canada. The
lowest results were scored in Albania, Indonesia and Peru.

The education system in Indonesia has been criticized by
education experts for its failure to produce good teachers.

The lack of money in education and corruption have only
exacerbated the poor condition of the system.

This year the government allocated Rp 13.6 trillion (US$1.56
billion) for education, an increase from 11.6 trillion in 2002.

However, the present budget for education is only 4 percent of
the total state budget.

Article 31 (4) of the amended 1945 Constitution stipulates
that the state should give priority to education by allocating a
minimum of 20 percent of the total state and regional budgets to
the cost of national education.