Minister defends 'elitist' school programs

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro yesterday defended the provision of special programs for the gifted, which are often smeared as an "elitist" approach to education.

"In my view...this (criticism) reflects an entirely misguided interpretation of the concept of equal access to education," Wardiman said when opening the Fourth Asia-Pacific Conference.

The opinion is misguided because it fails to take into account the basic difference in innate capabilities that children bring to the school system, he told some 500 people attending the conference.

Equal opportunity to education means that all children -- gifted, handicapped and the general student population -- have the same opportunity to receive a quality education, he said.

The four-day conference was organized by University of Indonesia's School of Psychology and the Indonesian Foundation for the Education and Development of Gifted Children.

The government is determined to have at least one school in each of the 27 provinces which offers classes for gifted children. At present, Jakarta has four public schools which provide classes for such students, making it the province with the most superschools.

In Indonesia, about 2 percent, or 600,000, of 30 million elementary school children are categorized as gifted.

Quality education reflects the degree to which the school system takes into account the capabilities of the students that are part of the system, he said.

If handicapped children do not benefit from, or cannot follow, a general curriculum, he said, they certainly do not receive a quality education.

"Similarly, if gifted children are not stimulated to the fullest of their potential, they also don't receive a quality education," Wardiman said.

It means that programs for the gifted, schools for the handicapped, as well as schools for average students, should be organized, he said.

"The concept of Sekolah Unggul (superior school) is a beginning to start responding to the needs of fast learners and the gifted," Wardiman said.

He admitted that the public school system does not satisfactorily cater to the handicapped and highly gifted children due to the huge number of Indonesian children.

"The government has created a school of excellence in every province to provide opportunities for gifted children and fast learners alike, so they can select and attend schools that more closely cater to their needs," Wardiman said.

Other speakers in yesterday's conference, which is conducted every two years, were State Minister of Population Haryono Suyono and Norah Maier of Nanyang Technological University of Singapore.

One of the speakers, Eddie Braggett of Charles Sturt University Faculty of Education, Australia, agreed that gifted children need special attention.

"It's not true if people think gifted children will automatically succeed without special attention. To a small percentage, yes, it does not matter, they will get on and become outstanding," Braggett, an education professor, told The Jakarta Post.

"But, most of them will become discourage, lose their motivation...This group I'm worried about," he said.

He suggested gifted children can be identified through cultural measures. "What another country does with gifted children is not necessarily the same in other countries. It also depends on the cultural context in each country," Braggett said.

Citing examples, he said that the identification on giftedness can be based on the children's cognition, creativity, learning ability, special talent and personality.

"These identification procedures are not always transferable to other cultures. Some countries have a different approach to the identification, assessment and cultivation of talent," Braggett said.

Once gifted children are identified, they should be placed in special schools or classes or enrolled in special programs, he said. (31)