Indonesian students weak in basic skills

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesian students score relatively low in basic skills compared to their peers in other countries, according to a recently published survey of 15-year-olds.

The survey, which covered 43 countries on five continents, was conducted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)'s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).

According to the findings, about 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 -- a degree of proficiency referred to in the study as Level 1.

Thirty-one percent ranked even lower than that, and only 1 percent were ranked at Level 4. None were ranked at Level 5, which is the highest level and is reserved for students who are able to manage information that is presented in unfamiliar texts and show an understanding of difficult texts.

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.

Reading literacy is defined as the ability to understand, use and reflect on written texts in order to achieve one's goals, to develop one's knowledge and potential, and to participate effectively in society.

In mathematical literacy skills, which are defined as the ability to identify, understand and engage in mathematics, the score attained by Indonesian students was also significantly lower than that of students in most other countries.

The three highest performing countries in this particular field were Hong Kong, Japan and Korea, while the lowest were Indonesia, Brazil and Peru.

The same is true with regard to science literary skills, which were defined as the capacity to use scientific knowledge, identify questions and to draw evidence-based conclusions.

In this respect, too, Indonesia was considered as one of the worst performing countries, followed only by Albania, Brazil and Peru.

The best results were obtained by Korea, Japan and Hong Kong.

The assessment is held by PISA once every three years, and is intended to measure how well 15-year-olds are prepared to meet the challenges of today's societies.

For that purpose questionnaires are distributed among 4,500 to 10,000 students in each participating country.

The findings also show several other indications that are very much related to the students' performance -- including the fact that countries with higher national incomes or gross domestic products (GDP) tend to perform better than countries with low national incomes.

The study also shows that students who spend more time reading for pleasure, read a greater variety of material and show more positive attitudes towards reading, tend to be better readers, regardless of family background and wealth level.

Literary skills in students are important today as they will be relevant to their future life -- even more so than the memorization of knowledge.

According to the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), a survey conducted among adults to ascertain the relationship between their literacy capabilities and their current work, people with higher levels of reading literacy are more likely to be employed and to have higher average salaries than those at lower levels.

Literacy in mathematics and science is important in order to understand medical, economic, environmental and other issues that shape modern societies, which rely heavily on technological and scientific advances.