Textbook writers' skills queried

A. Chaedar Alwasilah, Dean, Faculty of Language and Arts Education Indonesian University of Education (UPI), Bandung, chaedar@bdg.centrin.net.id

There is no development without education and there is no education without textbooks. And to develop quality education there should be many professionals committed to textbook writing. To our dismay, this is a far cry from reality.

It has often been reported that the children's books produced locally are not interesting for children both in content and appearance. No wonder children stay away from them and get hooked onto the imported and translated comics such as Sailor Moon, and Dragon Ball.

Most textbooks on the market are written by schoolteachers lacking formal qualification. At teachers colleges they may have taken a course on the review of curriculum or textbooks. However, in no way is this course intended to enable college students to write a textbook. At best, later on when teaching they will know how to use the textbooks intelligently and skillfully.

After assessing the substandard reading habits of our students, a call for professional textbook writing is inevitable in order to develop attractive and substantive textbooks. Such appealing books abound in developed countries such as Japan, where avid reading habits are developed and encouraged from childhood.

Textbook writing in Indonesia seems to be driven by either hobby or financial needs. Used to writing, many fiction writers have turned into textbook writers. While they find writing a routine or hobby, they commonly lack a basic understanding of the curriculum and awareness of pedagogical principles. These writers are like soldiers who know to combat but do not know the reason for the war.

Another group of textbook writers are schoolteachers. Having taught for a relatively long time, they have experience with miscellaneous textbooks and references. Using the curriculum as a basis, they can easily tell whether textbooks are congruent with the curricula. And in light of student response to the textbooks, the teachers can easily suggest what things should or should not have been included.

Armed with firsthand classroom experience, they believe that they can write much more suitable textbooks. They are like well- indoctrinated soldiers who are not prepared to engage in the battle. So we now witness another common phenomenon in our schools: schoolteachers turned textbook writers.

Their end product ranges from student worksheets (Lembar Kerja Siswa, LKS) to supplements, or even real textbooks. The argument goes that the LKS and supplements are developed on the basis of student needs. In most cases, teacher-developed materials predominate, thus overlooking the recommended textbooks.

Evidently the school has become an arena of textbook writing competition among teachers, schools, and private publishers. Often publishers periodically send their agents to the schools. No matter how professionally the recommended textbooks have been developed, the books are often underused. Schoolteachers claim that theirs are the more appropriate ones.

In the early 1990s the government invested hundreds of millions of rupiah on textbooks to be distributed free of charge to students. The centralized administration issued and enforced a textbook provision policy throughout the country. Unfortunately, such a policy has failed to recognize and accommodate school differences in terms of geography and local culture.

Many schools prefer the alternative textbooks developed by their colleague teachers in collaboration with private publishers. To win a bid, publishers are often under pressure to produce a textbook in a relatively short period of time. You see many writers born today are gone tomorrow! Consequently, parents have to spend extra money for these additional materials. In light of the regional autonomy policy, such a practice is expected to prevail for a long time.

On one hand, the illustration above suggests a writing culture in the making. Following a bottom-up policy, there is virtually no restriction at all for anyone to write a textbook. Almost all teachers seem to feel qualified to write one, despite the fact that they have not undergone any professional training specific to textbook writing.

On the other hand, one becomes convinced that our national education has failed to prepare professional textbook writers. It would not be surprising if textbook writing is not listed in the curricula of our education schools; unlike evaluation, statistics, management, philosophy and research.

In the United States textbook selection is a policy of a state or a school district. Usually a committee is tasked with evaluating available textbooks. Those textbooks are produced and evaluated following rigid guidelines. Employing professional writers, curriculum consultants and language specialists, publishers produce textbook drafts.

The draft is then reviewed by experts and piloted in a number of schools. Based on the pilot study they revise the draft before they mass-produce them.

It is high time for graduate schools of education -- especially departments of language education and curriculum -- to offer a Master degree or at least a specialization in textbook writing. The curriculum should consist of courses on writing for publication, the psychology of learning, methods of teaching and multimedia. The prospective writers should also take an apprenticeship at a publishing company.

In the near future, educational offices both at the provincial and regency levels should employ experts in textbook writing and evaluation along with experts in curriculum, school psychology, and educational measurement.