Pupils struggle with govt-issued schoolbooks
By Ahyani
High school students have a hard time understanding their poorly written textbooks. Romlah Suhadi, a lecturer at Universitas Nasional Jakarta recently conducted a survey of the problem. The following is a summary of her findings.
BANDUNG (JP): Indonesian students have difficulty understanding the textbooks issued by the government because the books tend to present the subject matter in a confusing way. Moreover the language is often tedious, making the contents even harder to read.
That is one conclusion Romlah Suhadi reaches in her study of the use of Indonesian in textbooks issued by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Romlah's findings are contained in the Analysis of the language used in high school package books from the aspect of readability presented at her doctorate examination at Padjadjaran University in Bandung early last month.
Romlah sampled two textbooks: Energy of Waves and Magnetic Fields from the exact sciences and Indonesian National History from the social sciences. The survey covered 12 high schools in Bandung.
To validate the research, Romlah used statistical as well as significant methods to find synergy in the test results.
"I used both the qualitative and quantitative methods. The quantitative data were obtained from the survey score, while the qualitative data were derived from the comments and suggestions by the test participants," she told The Jakarta Post at her home.
Romlah divided the respondent schools into two groups. Group A consisted of schools which showed a higher score of readability than the median value. Group B had a lower score.
Romlah also found that the readability score of the exact science book for Group A was between 65 and 68.02 percent, an average of 66.17 percent -- a high score according to her.
Group B only reached between 42.38 and 51.94 percent, with an average readability of 48.22 percent. A medium category, Romlah said.
For the history book Group B's average readability was between 38.00 and 48.22 percent.
"I think it is because the history book uses flowery language, making it difficult to understand, while the physics book uses effective language in explaining logical phenomena," she said.
Apart from testing the effectiveness of the books with students, Romlah also endeavored to observe what influence the books had on the teachers. The teachers also had problems with the books and were compelled to use textbooks published by private publishers to complement their classes.
Her study of the effective use of language covered the standard use of the language, its effectiveness, its scientific aspects, and the redundancy found in the two books. The latter hampers the students' understanding of the material.
Romlah proposed that the production of textbook packages should involve subject experts, language experts and book designers.
As important, is that all textbook packages be checked for readability before being distributed "in order that the use of the books is effective."
"If weaknesses are detected during the checking, corrections can be made. The books should not be distributed before their evaluation," Romlah concluded.