What's in it for our children?

By Irene Sugiharto

JAKARTA (JP): The girl was staring at her math book with a hopeless look. She had read it many times but still did not understand.

"Although we have a total of 48 hours worth of math lessons in a week, it is still difficult for us to do our homework," complained Tasya, a 14-year-old student at a private junior high school in the southern part of Jakarta.

It seems odd that such stressfully long hours are still not enough for students to get a grip on their homework.

"It is the most difficult-to-cope-with subject," she said.

It is hard not to feel pity for young students in Indonesia, who have to face so much pressure and go through such exhausting exercises every school day.

The heavy curriculum presented in Indonesia is one major obstacle faced by the government, but parents also feel their children are overworked. Society generally thinks that school curricula are much too heavy for an average student's brain to absorb.

During one academic year, for example, students are exposed to between 13 and 15 core subjects, presented over six days of academic lessons per week.

The number of subjects taught to elementary and junior high school students needs to be reduced, as teachers feel that the heavy work load is too mentally tiring for students to handle. Many teachers also believe that the education department should eliminate subjects that are not relevant to the real world.

The strain is not only felt by students, but also by teachers, who have to present an extensive amount of material in the limited time available. This might explain why teachers in Indonesia appear to be equipped with only theories of teaching, rather theories of educating.

A normal school day, which starts at 7 a.m. and finishes usually around 1 p.m. (it varies for different schools), is so exhausting to prevent them continuing with their private studies at home.

Student Tasya confessed: "We chat more than we study due to our boredom with the teachers and the heavy subjects." She said she often feels refreshed as her English teacher enters the classroom. "He is relaxed and allows me and my friends to have a bit of fun."

But other than her English teacher, who happens to be a native speaker, the other teachers are boring, according to Tasya.

It seems that the education system here is far from an ideal one, which would provide a balanced intensive but in-depth education. Such a program would definitely enhance the willingness of students to actively explore other subjects in their interest areas.

What happens here, unfortunately, is the opposite. Many students lack interest in subjects. Studying is boring and becomes a burden, and often ends in frustration.

Adit, an 11-year-old elementary school student in Jakarta, described his efforts to cope with mathematics taught at his level.

"The workload is much too heavy to bear and we sometimes don't understand what we're doing." He said the burden is felt most in math and social science classes, because teachers stack most of the homework on these subjects.

Ironically, Adit believes these two subjects are the most important. Big changes are obviously needed to enable Indonesian students to feel proud about being students.

Ian, 15, a junior high school student from Bandung, revealed that the intensive, and yet extensive, material presented in class is usually not enough to prepare for the required homework.

"I can tell that teachers have a lot to explain with only a limited time for them to do so," he said.

As a result, he and his friends do not have enough knowledge to attend to their piles of homework.

Ian also added that, since he has 13 subjects to handle, "It is very difficult to study all of them in a balanced way, and difficult to memorize too."

It will be quite a challenge to rescue our education system. Such changes should be based on the assumption that when we study subjects we enjoy, we automatically want to explore more of what that particular subject has to offer, without teachers needing to hound students.