Primary students lack interest in natural sciences

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 08/06/2009 11:22 AM | National

Eleven-year-old Ghina Ramadhani delighted in an experimental display at a science exhibition in Jakarta on Wednesday, jumping on and off a mat wired to a showerhead, turning it on and off in the process.

However, the sixth grader from a school in Tangerang, Banten, maintained that she did not “have much interest in the natural sciences”.

“I’m not that keen on studying nature; I get goose bumps whenever I see organs or bugs.”
She prefers the more “daunting” subjects, such as mathematics, because it “requires me to wrack my brains, which is fun”.

Ghina says she loves puzzles, and loves solving them even more. The natural sciences, she says, are less puzzling than mathematics.

The National Education Ministry has become concerned in recent years by the fact that fewer people are taking their university degrees in natural sciences, making it harder for Indonesia to compete globally in agriculture and other related sectors and raising concerns over the absence of competent people to maintain the country’s natural resources.

It seems, however, that the lack of interest in studying natural sciences actually starts early on. Ghina is not the only primary student to find little challenge in the natural sciences.

Steven Kasemetan from a school in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, says he dislikes the subject because “all I have to do is read the books and memorise them”.

“It’s no fun,” the sixth grader says, adding his school rarely allowed the students to experiment.

Slamet, a teacher from state elementary school SDN Menteng 02, said students were easily bored if the teachers were only giving them theories without showing them how the theories apply in their daily lives.

“When students can associate, for example, how water flows with their daily showers, they will understand better and faster,” he told The Jakarta Post.

The problem with teaching natural sciences these days, Slamet said, was that it included little creativity.

Teachers, he added, sometimes failed to provide a way for their students to see the fun side of the subject, whether by engaging them in experiments or playing games.

During his 12 years of teaching not only has he employed those two methods, but he also lets his students conduct small research projects.

Moreover, his method includes an interactive computer-based program that allows students to learn their lessons while playing games.

“Some of my students also build their own experiments using used materials,” said Slamet, who is also a counselor for his fellow teachers in the natural sciences.

He added he would also take his students on walks around the school complex, which has around 7,000 different kinds of plants growing.

On Wednesday, his school’s booth was rated the best, based on its creativity, display and interactivity, by a panel of judges at the exhibition“If the teachers are creative, the students will be too,” he said. (adh)

Govt to attract students to natural sciences

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 08/04/2009 10:47 AM | National

With fewer and fewer people taking university degrees in the natural sciences, the national Education Ministry is working on ways to attract more students.

“High school graduates today are not interested in studying agriculture, animal husbandry or fishery; these majors are not popular anymore,” a senior official at the Education Ministry, Hendarman, told a discussion recently.

Some universities, he added, had even had to close their agriculture courses because not a single student wanted to take them.

The phenomenon, he said, was ironic, considering Indonesia was an agricultural country.

Academic director at the directorate general of higher education, Illah Sailah, said Monday the declining trend in people applying to major in the natural sciences had actually started in 2004.

“It will be our country’s loss if no one studies these subjects. Who will manage our natural resources then?” she said.

To address the problem, the ministry is looking at ways to attract more students to study agriculture.

“Perhaps by changing the name of the subject into something more interesting,” Hendarman said, adding that “agribusiness classes” have more participants, although they are not that different from agriculture classes.

Soil Science, Agriculture, Cultivation, and Pest and Disease majors are merged into the category of agrotechnology while Agriculture, Social Economics, and Communication and Counselingclasses are combined into the agribusiness course.

“By doing this, we aim to achieve different learning outcomes; we want graduates with general skills that are comprehensive, and not the specific skills regular agriculture classes offer now,” Illah told The
Jakarta Post.

“Besides, industry requires graduates to have the skills to manage everything, from upstream to downstream, so we are trying to respond to the market’s signals,” she said.

Hendarman said a lot of agriculture or fishery graduates do not work in their specific fields of knowledge.

“Rather, most of them are now working as employees in banks, or as journalists, or in other fields,” he said, adding that Indonesia still has a high unemployment rate.

The country is seeing an increase in the number of people who have university diplomas but
are unemployed. In 2008 the number increased by 42 percent to 1 million compared with the figure for 2005.

Illah said that the ministry was also revitalizing the agricultural courses.

“We started giving grants to 29 universities this year so they can renew or add to their educational resources and equipment,” she said, adding that each university receives between Rp 400 million (US$40,400) to Rp 900 million.

Rector of the University of Indonesia Gumilar Rusliwa Somantri said his university has also seen a decline in the number of applicants for natural science majors, however he had another way to attract
students.

“We try to entice them by offering scholarship opportunities,” he said, without going into detail as to the number of scholars the university had accepted. (adh)

IPB's corn noodles win int'l contest

Novia D. Rulistia , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sun, 07/19/2009 11:27 AM | Discover

Students of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) started producing instant corn noodle to alleviate malnutrition-related health problems and the product won the international food technology contest.

Galih Nugroho, Ari Try Purbayanto, Riza Aris Apriady, Kamalita Pertiwi and Catherine Haryasyah produced instant corn noodle which has been fortified with various microorganism.

They presented their 6-page paper on the innovation at the IFP Annual Meeting and Food Expo organized by the Institute of Technologists in the United States. Their innovation ranked third in the competition, after the Netherlands and South Africa.

"We're so excited. It's a tough competition but we know we were ready to compete and we knew we could compete as we've prepared at our utmost," Galih said.

"We have done some research about many health problems in Southeast Asia countries and we found that there are still many cases about food nutrition deficiency. So we decided to take this as our case," said the eight semester student at IPB's food technology study.

To make it more specific, he said, the group focused on food nutrition deficiency in pregnant women as most cases were found in them.

"They are the medium to carry the micro nutrition for their future babies," he said.

Through the product, Galih said, the mothers-to-be could consume a lot of nutrition up to three times a week which were important during pregnancy.

Corn noodle was first brought on to research table in 1998 with several researchers from IPB involved in the project.

To make the noodle, the team use corn flour and mixed it with protein-fortified egg flour and add to it several nutrition. Next, the dough is undergoing an extrusion process, a process to create a certain texture by pressing all materials.

The production takes around one-and-a-half to two hours.

"The process is not that hard, the ingredients are affordable so that the price of the noodle is also affordable," said Galih, adding that its economical side was one of the reasons they won the contest.

The other considerations were because they make the full use of local resources, the technology can be easily used by people, and of their free-preservative but full of protein product.

Although the five have got international acknowledgement for the innovation, further research is still needed to optimize the instant corn noodle before it hits the market.

"We hope with this, the death of pregnant women suffering from malnutrition can be decreasing."

Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono said during a recent ceremony to honor the achievement that the government was encouraging industry players to adopt the new technology so that the product could be soon available in the community.

Schools forbidden from seeking fees

Khairul Saleh , The Jakarta Post , Palembang | Wed, 07/01/2009 12:14 PM | The Archipelago

South Sumatra Governor Alex Noerdin issued a stern warning Tuesday to schools to not demand school admission fees under any circumstances, once the free education program comes into effect in the coming school year.

"We will meet out punitive and administrative sanctions on schools that breach the rule, particularly those demanding fees from new students for no clear reasons," Alex said. "Schools will only be allowed to charge fees that are effectively contributions, but should discuss the matter with parents and get their prior consent."

He added thorough understanding and full support from all regencies and municipalities were essential to facilitating and implementing the free education program.

To educate the public on the free education concept, the governor's office will conduct routine evaluations of the implementation of the program, as well as of the free healthcare program, in 15 regencies and municipalities in South Sumatra.

Alex said lack of understanding on the part of the public, as well as by regency and municipal administrations over the free education program could raise differing perceptions and interpretations.

The program is not intended to lower the education standard, as critics have claimed, but to further improve education quality through continuous supervision, according to the governor, with program implementers required to stick to the existing guidelines.

Armansyah, 35, a resident of Sukabangun district in the provincial capital Palembang, expressed doubt that the program could be implemented effectively, adding the junior high school where he planned to enroll his child would still demand an enrollment fee.

"The amount is still unclear, but a number of parents have raised the issue that they were charged these fees," said Armansyah, a trader at a traditional market in the city.

"We're afraid the program will not run effectively, due to these demands for payment."

Maryati, a resident of Demang Lebar Daun, also in Palembang, concurred, saying her two children had registered at a senior high school the previous week, and several parents had also complained about the existing enrollment fees. "The fees are still there, though it's not ethical to mention the amount," she said.

The provincial administration has set allocated Rp 188 billion (US$1.8 million) to be spent on 1,680,165 students in private and state schools, from the elementary to senior high levels, in the province's 15 regencies and municipalities.

Only national standard (SSN) and international standard preparatory (RSBI) schools are allowed to ask for school fees and payments for other expenses.

The monthly financial aid per student will be Rp 10,000 for a elementary school students, Rp 15,000 for a junior high school student, Rp 80,000 for a senior high school student, and Rp 90,000 for a vocational school student.

The South Sumatra administration has issued a bylaw earlier this year on the implementation and service of the free education program, and applied it across South Sumatra.

MASTERY OF ENGLISH in all subjects essential for teachers, students

Novia D. Rulistia , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sun, 06/21/2009 1:18 PM | Discover

Nowadays, a lot of people in Indonesia are able to speak English at a basic conversational level. But when it comes to more specific issues, let's say science or IT, more work is needed.

Chrisitian Duncamb, director of English and Education Reform at the British Council, said recently that as the world becomes increasingly interrelated, mastery of English in specific contexts, such as that used for conducting research or business, is crucial.

He said that ensuring teachers of subjects other than English have an adequate proficiency in English is important for the realization of the government's policy on English Bilingual Education (EBE), which aims to see at least one international-standard school in every province, at which many classes are taught in English.

Since 2006, 112 schools have applied the EBE.

"A teacher is one of the most important key players in shaping a student's mind, especially those in the early stages of education. So there should be a guarantee that teachers have first mastered English so they can convey the message correctly," British Council education advisor Itje Chodidjah said on the sidelines of a recent symposium on bilingual education.

Based on her experience as a trainer, it takes at least two years before a teacher can really teach in English.

In addition, she said, the government should also assess teachers in order to gain a complete picture of their ability, including their knowledge of the content to be taught and their mastery of English.

"The ministry's Education Excellence Institute (LPMP), which has trainers in all of its chapters, can do this assessment," she said, adding that the trainers must first undergo training themselves. "This is where the British Council comes in."

The British Council has been cooperating with LPMP to train English teachers in several primary schools.

However, Itje is not yet sure when the training for trainers will be conducted as the thorough plan is still being deliberated. But several areas of focus have been identified including pedagogical ability, language level of teachers and learners and knowledge of the materials.

Director general of primary and secondary education at the ministry, Suyanto, said that although the policy had not progressed much, the government would continue to work on it and support schools in need of help.

As part of a similar effort, the Cultural and Language Faculty of the University of Indonesia (UI) also recently held training sessions for English teachers from 25 high schools in Depok, West Java.

Indah Welasasih Ludji, the coordinator of the English writing workshop, said that the training was held to help students prepare for English writing tasks in college as well as to prepare the teachers themselves so that they may comply with the government's policy on international standard schools.

"Many students may be able to speak English fluently, but not all of them know how to write scientific papers, or even write at all in English. And that often happens here," she said, adding that the training covered how to write functional and narrative prose as well as essays.

"In the future, we hope we can reach other schools outside Depok."

Minimum Wage for Teachers Will Be Regulated

Upah Minimum Guru Diatur
Banyak yang Tak Sanggup Beli Buku
Kamis, 7 Mei 2009 | 03:20 WIB

Jakarta, Kompas - Ratusan ribu guru honor atau wiyata bakti baik di sekolah negeri maupun swasta masih belum memperoleh jaminan kesejahteraan yang layak. Oleh karena itu, sedang diupayakan agar terdapat aturan mengenai upah minimum pendidik.

Pemerintah tengah pula menyusun Rancangan Peraturan Pemerintah (RPP) tentang Guru Non-PNS.

Ketua Umum Persatuan Guru Republik Indonesia (PGRI) Sulistyo, Rabu (6/5), mengatakan, organisasi pimpinannya telah mengusulkan agar terdapat subsidi dari anggaran negara untuk guru wiyata bakti. Saat ini terdapat 922.000 guru wiyata bakti se-Indonesia.

Para guru tersebut banyak yang memperoleh imbalan di bawah upah minimum regional untuk buruh yang ditetapkan pemerintah kota atau kabupaten. ”Mereka mengalami pelecehan profesi guru karena dibayar dengan tidak wajar selama puluhan tahun,” ujarnya.

Guru-guru honor, terutama di sekolah swasta, di sejumlah daerah banyak yang dibayar sekitar Rp 200.000 hingga Rp 250.000 per bulan dan tanpa tunjangan lainnya. Padahal, upah untuk pekerja lain rata-rata sudah di atas Rp 700.000, bahkan banyak yang di atas Rp 900.000 per bulan.

”Kami sudah mengirimkan surat pada 12 Februari 2009 ke Presiden RI dengan tembusan ke Menteri Keuangan, Menteri Pendidikan Nasional, Menteri Negara Pendayagunaan Aparatur Negara, dan Menteri Sekretaris Negara agar ditentukan standar upah minimal pendidikan. Besarannya harus di atas upah minimum regional buruh pabrik,” kata Sulistyo.

Terlebih lagi, tidak seperti buruh pabrik, guru sekarang diharuskan minimal berpendidikan S-1 atau D-4. Persoalan kesejahteraan guru ini memengaruhi pula minat masyarakat terhadap profesi guru.

Sulistyo juga menyambut baik RPP tentang Guru Non-PNS yang tengah diupayakan pemerintah.

Dengan adanya perbaikan kesejahteraan, minat menjadi PNS juga berkurang.

RPP Guru Non-PNS

Dirjen Peningkatan Mutu Pendidik Tenaga Kependidikan Depdiknas Baedhowi mengatakan, Depdiknas mengajukan RPP Guru Non-PNS terutama untuk mengatur agar pengangkatan guru non-PNS lebih manusiawi. Hal itu diungkapkannya di sela-sela Pertemuan Koordinasi Asosiasi Lembaga Pendidik Tenaga Kependidikan (LPTK) Swasta Seluruh Indonesia.

”Termasuk juga nanti akan diatur gaji minimal yang harus dipenuhi sekolah atau penyelenggara pendidikan. Tidak seperti sekarang, banyak guru swasta yang hanya mendapat gaji ’belas kasihan’,” katanya.

Menurut Baedhowi, RPP tentang Guru Non-PNS masih terus dibahas, antara lain dengan Kantor Menneg PAN. ”Kami ingin guru Non-PNS pun punya kepastian dalam sistem pengangkatan, penggajian, serta hak dan kewajibannya,” ujarnya.

Ketua Serikat Guru Jakarta sekaligus Ketua Forum Guru Honorer Indonesia Supriyono menambahkan, guru membutuhkan biaya untuk menunjang kebutuhan hidup sehari-hari dan kebutuhan profesionalnya. ”Sudah seharusnya guru dapat berlangganan koran, internet, dan membeli buku paling tidak satu bulan satu judul buku,” ujarnya.

Dengan demikian, ilmu pengetahuan guru terus berkembang sehingga para murid mendapatkan pengajaran yang baik. ”Sekarang ini mutu pendidikan merosot antara lain karena guru tidak punya kemampuan finansial mengikuti perkembangan ilmu pengetahuan. (INE/ELN)

BSNP (National Educational Standardization Board) Admits Frauds in National Examination

BSNP Akui Ada Kecurangan UN
UN SLTP Susulan Sedikit Peserta
Selasa, 5 Mei 2009 | 04:03 WIB

Jakarta, Kompas - Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan dan Departemen Pendidikan Nasional mengakui ujian nasional masih memunculkan kecurangan-kecurangan yang dilakukan siswa, guru, sekolah, hingga aparat dinas pendidikan di daerah. Namun secara umum, pelaksanaan ujian nasional semakin baik.

”Permasalahan yang muncul di lapangan itu tentu saja ditindaklanjuti sesuai prosedur yang berlaku. Setelah itu, perlu ada antisipasi untuk perbaikan UN berikutnya,” kata

Mungin Eddy Wibowo, Kepala Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan (BSNP), dalam keterangan pers soal evaluasi pelaksanaan UN SMP-SMA di Jakarta, Senin (4/5).

Amin Priyatna, Inspektur IV Inspektorat Jenderal Depdiknas, mengatakan, kecurangan UN pada tahun ini berkurang ketimbang dua tahun lalu. Pada tahun ini, kasus yang mencuat adalah percobaan pembocoran soal yang dilakukan sejumlah kepala sekolah di Kabupaten Bengkulu Selatan. Pada tahun 2008, kecurangan UN yang ditangani serius Itjen Depdiknas tersebar di tujuh provinsi dan tahun 2007 sekitar 12 provinsi.

Amin mengatakan, temuan- temuan seputar penyelenggaraan UN itu didapat dari media massa maupun pengaduan yang masuk dari masyarakat. ”Ada 36 catatan yang perlu ditindaklanjuti soal pelaksanaan UN. Itjen menurunkan 300 auditor di 33 provinsi untuk bisa memantau penyelenggaraan UN. Dari temuan, secara umum pelaksanaan UN sudah baik,” kata Amin.

Mungin mengatakan, berdasarkan catatan BSNP dan Depdiknas, persoalan yang terus berulang adalah pelanggaran terhadap prosedur operasional standar (POS) UN. Pelanggaran itu, misalnya, ketidakberesan dalam pencetakan dan pendistribusian naskah UN hingga buruknya kualitas cetakan naskah soal, siswa membawa handphone ke ruang ujian, dan lain-lain.

Tak ikut UN susulan

Secara terpisah, di Kota Tegal, Jawa Tengah, banyak siswa tidak memanfaatkan kesempatan mengikuti UN susulan. Diduga ketidakikutan siswa tersebut karena mereka sudah bekerja.

”Dari 29 siswa SLTP yang tidak hadir pada UN hari pertama pekan lalu, hanya lima siswa yang memanfaatkan UN susulan,” kata Kepala Bidang Pendidikan Dasar, Dinas Pendidikan Kota Tegal, Abdullahmin Arifin.

Di Semarang, UN susulan SMP sederajat pada hari Senin kemarin juga hanya diikuti 16 siswa dari 72 siswa yang seharusnya ikut.

Penyelenggaraan UN susulan di Kota Semarang dipusatkan di SMP Negeri 5. Terdapat empat kelas yang telah disiapkan, tetapi hanya satu kelas yang akhirnya digunakan oleh 16 siswa SMP dan madrasah tsanawiyah.(ELN/ WIE/ILO)