Nobel laureate calls for attention to slow learners

SERPONG, W. Java (JP): Compulsory education must have a flexible curriculum to ensure the advancement of all students, including slow learners, according to Nobel laureate Yuan Tseh Lee.

"If a government decides to make education compulsory, it has a responsibility (to ensure) that all students can follow," said Lee, a Taiwanese, who won this year's Nobel Prize for chemistry.

With a uniform education system such as that in Taiwan, which relatively quickly streams bright and slow children, 40 percent of students lag behind, Lee said.

Lee, who was speaking at the sixth national conference on science, said he was initially inspired by the life of French physicist Marie Curie.

The Serpong conference, which will last until Sept. 15, is being held at the Center of Science and Technology.

Indonesia extended its compulsory education from six years to nine years in selected schools last year.

Lee said that for some years teachers and parents in Taiwan have been arguing over whether or not slower children should be separated from the others.

"Teachers say the (slow learners) always disturb classes, while parents are horrified (at the idea of) grouping students into good and less good," said Lee, chairman of Taiwan's National Curricula Commission, which is proposing a more flexible curriculum.

"I went to President Lee (Teng-hui) and I said it is a crime that the government is used as a tool for compulsory education since six years of age, in which 30 to 40 percent of children find they don't learn anything after four years." Violence and drug-use is one result of discouraging children, he added.

"I think Edison and Albert Einstein could not have graduated if they went to school in Taiwan," said Lee, referring to the large quantities of memorized material and the national written exams.

Iskandar Alisyahbana, a noted intellectual from the Bandung Institute of Technology, told reporters that he agreed with the idea of a curriculum "which recognizes the different potential of each child."

However, he acknowledged this would be more expensive since more teachers would need to be involved.

Basic science

Lee, who was an American national for some 20 years before he returned to Taiwan, urged developing nations to optimize efforts to ensure that "the best and the brightest" can continue to study and conduct research in basic science.

This is important, he said, as the years of the "free ride" of using technology from the advanced countries is coming to an end.

"The distance between basic research and (applied) technology is getting closer and closer," said Lee.

Large corporations like IBM are building laboratories to conduct basic research, but keeping a close watch to make sure that other parties do not profit from their scientists' findings.

Whereas previously only technological findings were patented and basic science was more available, the closer distance between technology and basic science has changed this, Lee said.

This narrower gap is the result of technological advances which mean a faster rate of innovation, he said.

While a developing country may not be able to compete at the frontiers of science, "a country must select its certain centers of excellence," said Lee.

By developing basic scientific research, while enhancing the education of all children through compulsory formal education, Lee said developing countries will catch up with advanced countries within decades.

Iskandar reminded the conference that developing countries need not repeat the mistakes made by advanced ones. (anr)