Where have all the good teachers gone?

Good teachers that encourage children to fully absorb knowledge are few and far between.

There are many things wrong with the country’s education system, which explains why Indonesian students score lower than those in China and Thailand in science, reading and math tests, according to the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2010.

To say the country does not spend enough on education is an understatement, since less than one-quarter of the annual state budget goes to education under the supervision of the Education and Culture Ministry.

Even then, money is not everything. The PISA study also recorded that Indonesian students performed better than Qatari’s, who live in the world’s richest country by GDP per capita.

The latest ministry effort to improve education is redefining natural and social sciences (locally known as IPA and IPS, respectively) in the elementary education curriculum commencing this year. This is over concerns that children have been overburdened by long school hours, which, ironically, is due to another ministerial policy to extend learning time.

After many controversial reforms from the ministry regarding students failing the national exams and the extended school hours, the latest curriculum initiative raised many eyebrows.

“The biggest problem in Indonesian education is the teaching method. It’s not about constantly changing the curriculum, but how most of our teachers have poor ability in transferring knowledge to students,” Shafiq Pontoh, chief of community-based Gerakan Indonesian Berkibar (Indonesian Education Movement, GIB).

He said he believed the main things in basic education were teaching students how to read, write and comprehend mathematics as well as natural and social sciences.

“As soon as they can read, they will learn more things. When they learn how to write, it also means that they learn how to think in structure. Meanwhile, math and the sciences will increase their logical skills and ability to ask questions.”

GIB cited a 2010 ministry report that found 54 percent of the country’s teachers needed their skills improved and 13.19 percent of schools were in poor shape.

Data released in 2007 by the World Bank stated there was an uneven distribution of teachers in the country. Twenty-one percent of the schools in urban areas were in need of more teachers, while the rate stood at 37 percent in remote areas and 55 percent in rural areas. In general, 34 percent of the total schools in the country experienced a shortage of educators, while there were quite a few areas with an excess number of teachers.

Sharing a similar thought, education expert Bambang Irianto said the country had yet to reach the ideal stage in providing good education.

“An ideal education is a situation where a student is not just mastering science. It’s about building a good character for students by giving them skills with which to face life,” he said.

Bambang named communication as an important ability in facing the present and the future. Despite it being vital, he did not recommend the ministry create a dedicated communication subject because the Indonesian language played a role in that.

“One effective teaching method in learning good communication is establishing a group discussion session. The students learn how to express their opinion and how to listen to others,” he said.

Most teachers maintain the old-fashioned one-way-approach by just lecturing in front of a classroom and requiring the students to take notes before conducting regular quizzes.

“As a result, it is common to see people being stubborn in discussion forums, forcing others to follow their path and ignoring others’ point of view because they are accustomed to such an attitude.”

Dahlan comes a cropper after good luck ritual

Up close: A sequence of photos shows a damaged Tucuxi electric sports car following an accident on Saturday near Magetan, East Java. The car, driven by State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan, was totaled in the incident.

Just a few hours after going through a Javanese cleansing ritual called ruwatan believed to eliminate bad luck, a locally developed electric car the Tucuxi — driven by State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan — rammed into the side of a mountain road during a test drive on Saturday.

Dahlan and his co-driver, auto mechanic Ricky Elson, emerged unscathed from the accident, which took place on Mount Lawu in East Java, but the Rp 1.5 billion (US$155,440) sports car, which is described as “Ferrari red”, was totaled in the incident, which took place at around 3 p.m.

A ministry statement said the car experienced brake failure when traveling down the mountain at speed.

The high-profile incident was the latest for Dahlan, a media tycoon who has turned into something of a celebrity, gaining media attention and public sympathy through his many stunts.

He charmed people by sleeping in a farmer’s hut in Yogyakarta and surprised motorists by forcing open a tollgate in Senayan, Jakarta, during rush hour to let them through for free, but he has repeatedly denied his moves are aimed at garnering support for a bid for the presidency in 2014.

On Saturday, Dahlan, who was driving the car from Surakarta, Central Java, to Magetan, veered into the mountainside when the brakes suddenly failed.

 “The car was just fine when going down a steep road in Sarangan. But after that the brakes didn’t seem to work properly. I repeatedly stepped on them but they didn’t respond. The same was also the case with the handbrake,” Dahlan told reporters in Takeran.

“If I hadn’t swerved into the slope, the car would have run faster and could have damaged other vehicles.”

The car did not come to a complete stop after hitting the mountainside but went on to hit a utility pole. It eventually came to a halt directly in front of another car.

Although Dahlan escaped unhurt, the car was a write-off, which forced the minister to continue the trip to his hometown in Takeran district, Magetan, located some 20 kilometers from the accident site, in another car.

A few hours before the accident, the car underwent the ruwatan ritual in Surakarta. Renowned puppeteer Ki Manteb Soedharsono led the ceremony, believed to dispel misfortune, suffering and disaster. “The ritual was intentionally performed before the test drive to Ma-getan with the aim of protecting the car,” said Dahlan, who had personally tested the car in Jakarta earlier, prior to the ritual.

In spite of the accident, Dahlan said he was still proud of the car and he said he was willing to lose his life for the success of the electric car program.

Before the test drive in Surakarta, the Tucuxi had undergone modifications at the Kupu Kupu Malam auto shop in Yogyakarta and was taken on a 50-kilometer test drive from Yogyakarta to Kaliurang. On Saturday, the car left Surakarta to make the 80-kilometer journey to Magetan before it would continue on to Surabaya, East Java.

The research and production of the car prototype was originally conducted by scientist Danet Sur-yatama before it was further modified in Yogyakarta, although reportedly without Danet’s authority. Danet claimed to be concerned that the modifications could lead to patent violations.

Dahlan declined to comment on Danet’s claims.