Minister defends 'elitist' school programs
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)