Teachers told to make classes more alive

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro asked teachers yesterday to make classes more interesting or risk having their students fall asleep from boredom.

"It is in fact your job to make a difficult subject easy to understand, something abstract concrete and something complex simple," he told teachers at the opening of the School of Physics in the grounds of the Jakarta Teachers' Training and Education Institute (IKIP).

He said there were presently many physics teachers who taught students loads of abstract and complicated concepts but gave only a minimum amount of time for practical work in the laboratory.

During the training session, however, there was no mention of teachers salaries, which are among the lowest of all civil servants.

Many teachers might say they have no choice but to apply boring teaching methods to meet the demands of each curriculum, Wardiman said. This could cause serious undue stress to the students, he warned.

"Uninteresting teaching methods will not only put them under heavy pressure, but also diminish their enthusiasm, motivation and confidence," he said.

Wardiman pointed out this was often the problem with physics, which is one of the most unpopular subjects for junior and high school students.

Its unpopularity can also be witnessed by the small number of high school graduates who enroll in physics sciences upon entering university, he added.

The IKIP's School of Physics is an in-service training institution aimed at enriching experienced physics teachers with skills and knowledge to teach with methods that can produce "people that are truly able to develop the country".

The School works closely with the Indonesian Physics Association and the Italy-based International Centre for Theoretical Physics.

The School's courses are comprised of educational and scientific subjects which include application of technology, eliminating mis-conceptions in physics education, frontiers of physics, electronics today and communication systems.

Courses which are currently underway will last until Nov. 24 and are attended by some 70 junior and senior high school teachers from across Jakarta.

About 35 percent of the lecturers at IKIP's Department of Physics Education have masters and doctoral degrees in science and 17 percent have masters degrees in education.(pwn)