Teachers training curriculum needs revising: Observers

JAKARTA (JP): Observers and officials expressed support on Monday for a revision of the teachers training curriculum, especially in the fields of science and mathematics.

The calls came following a poor showing by 27 science teachers in the capital in a physics test.

"The revision must start from the very basic level, in which state universities such as the Jakarta State University (formerly IKIP Jakarta) that provides education courses, must focus more on the teaching methods of mathematics and science," Hafid Abbas, an education expert who is also a former deputy rector at Jakarta State University, said.

Hafid's remarks came after it was revealed that a physics test taken by 27 randomly selected science teachers in senior high schools in Jakarta yielded extremely poor results.

About half the testees got all the answers wrong, while only five percent answered more than six out of the 10 questions correctly.

The test was conducted by the Jakarta Agency for National Education Office in cooperation with the Physics Olympic Team (Tofi) late last year.

Tofi chairman Johanes Surya said the questions were based on material in the book Fisika Itu Mudah (Physics is Easy) for first grade senior high school.

He claimed that the essay-style questions were only "a little bit more difficult than first grade high school questions, but sadly those teachers failed to answer them correctly."

"Most of them didn't even understand the questions," Johanes said.

Concern over the quality of science and mathematics teachers has actually persisted for some time, Alwi Nurdin, head of Jakarta Agency for National Education said on Monday.

"We noticed that students' national exam results for science and mathematics had fallen sharply in 1998," Alwi said.

Rector of Jakarta State University Soetjipto, however, claimed that teachers received adequate lessons in teaching mathematics and science.

"They have to take mathematics for three semesters, which is similar to the mathematics curriculum at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB)," Soetjipto remarked. (edt)