Young Indonesians at the bottom of world class: OECD
Young Indonesians at the bottom of world class: OECD
Agencies Paris
Some Indonesian pupils may have won international science competitions, but according to an OECD survey of 15-year-olds in 41 countries, Indonesian students trail behind the rest of the pack, along with their peers from Tunisia, Brazil and Mexico.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's PISA survey, conducted for the second time last year, measures the knowledge of 250,000 of the world's pupils in four areas: mathematics, science, reading comprehension and problem solving.
The PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) survey, which includes the world's 30 industrialized nations and 11 partner countries, including Indonesia, has also become a way for countries to measure the effectiveness of their national education systems.
The results of the 2003 survey, released in Paris on Monday, showed Finnish students came in first place followed by those in South Korea, Hong Kong and, in fourth place, Japan.
Bringing up the rear were Tunisia, Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico (see table).
Indonesia came 38th in math and science -- out of 40 countries on the list (the United Kingdom was not included) -- and 39th in reading and problem solving.
The survey is based on a series of questions that give an idea of a student's ability to apply knowledge acquired in the classroom to everyday life.
One issue the OECD highlighted this year was a jump in the number of struggling students: from 4.2 percent in 2000 to 6.3 percent in 2003.
While a country's wealth in large part determines the educational achievements of its pupils, this is not always the case. South Korea's per capita gross national product is only 30 percent of the OECD average.
According to the Paris-based organization, the following are crucial to a good education: a good relationship between students and teachers, pupils eager to learn, an environment in which math classes do not provoke anxiety, and constructive rules to enforce discipline.
Girls are generally better students than boys. But the gap has narrowed somewhat in math, the OECD found, while in reading comprehension girls are still solidly ahead.