"It's ironic that Suharto is sometimes called 'the father of development.' It is much easier to be corrupt than be creative. No free thinkers allowed. Too dangerous. Creativity is all to easily snuffed out by corruption. Better just to be a consumer."
Thomas Belfield
Thomas and I are corresponding about "post-modern Jakarta", but as I freely adapt quotes to fit my own theories (theses?), it serves as an indication that, as I frequently comment, the administrators of Indonesia - at all levels - rarely think about consequences when they do attempt free thinking.
A word they often use is 'socialisation', which they and we take to be the familiarisation of proposed laws and/or regulations intended to change societal behaviour.
My last post reviewed the business - although I prefer the word 'profession' - of TEFLing, the teaching of English to Indonesians.
A year ago, on October 2nd 2009, the then Minister of Education promulgated a new law, Act No.66 of 2009 About Granting Permission for Foreign National Teachers in formal and non-formal education units in Indonesia. It's online in Indonesian here and the Google translation into English is here.
In essence, the law sets out the procedures for the recruitment of native speaker teachers from abroad, procedures which have been in force for as long as I can recall.
Given the turmoil among TEFLers already here, it would appear that the bureaucrats in the Ministry (Depnikas) were not sufficiently 'socialised' regarding the changes in the law, even though they've had a full year to understand its intentions, but that could be because there are grey areas.
For example, (in the Google translation): Educators are required to have academic qualifications, competence, certificates and education personnel (are expected to be?) physically and mentally healthy, and have ability to support the realization of national education goals.
That sounds eminently sensible, until you read on.
Academic qualifications referred to [are] determined as follows:
a. educated at least masters degree from college accredited for education personnel on formal education units in elementary and secondary education, including nursery (kindergarten), and higher education in the form of polytechnics and colleges;
b. educated at least doctorates from universities accredited for education personnel in higher education units the form high schools, universities and institutes.
A masters degree to teach in a kindergarten? A doctorate in education to teach in universities?
Who on earth would want to come to Indonesia with its paltry salaries if they're so well qualified 'back home'?
Or is this a reference to the academically low level of degrees awarded in Indonesian universities? Only 140 rank in this list of the world's top 20,000 universities, with the highest ranked university, the Institute of Technology Bandung at 589. The figure isn't good even for south-east Asia with ITB at 8th.
Then there are the health requirements, both physical and mental: New recruits are required to produce a certificate of good health and spirit, free of HIV / AIDS and free drugs from the hospital in the country concerned and to the check back / reset by the state hospital Indonesia.
I must admit that being of good spirit is a good thing. Unfortunately, Indonesia has a knack of making folk unhappy with its levels of corruption, pollution, and bureaucratic bloody-mindedness. Besides, how can you measure 'good spirit'? Is every new recruit supposed to produce a psychotherapist's report?
Regarding the requirement of a certificate from the home country showing that one is free from HIV/AIDS, this Wiki page states: Legal guidelines regarding HIV/AIDS do not exist although AIDS is a major problem in most countries in the region. Those infected with HIV traveling to Indonesia can possibly be refused entry or threatened with quarantine.
It's that word "possibly" which throws Article 5.3a of the Act into legal doubt, especially as a new recruits are expected to undergo a further test at an Indonesian hospital.
For more on AIDS prevalence and preventation, see this page which in part reads as follows: One aim of the National AIDS Commission 2007-2010 HIV and AIDS Response Strategy is to provide an enabling environment where civil society can play a significant role, and stigma and discrimination are eliminated or at least minimized.
Until ALL visitors to Indonesia, whether dignatories, businessfolk, tourists or drug traffickers, are subject to the same rigorous rigmarole, Article 5.3a is clearly discriminatory and against government policy.
One final thought: Article 5.3b requires a personal statement [that foreign educators] will not engage in propaganda activities religious, or klandesten intelligence, not doing collection of funds in Indonesia, and other activities outside the permit granted.
Where can I get a permit to engage in "klandesten intelligence"?
Monday, October 25, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
TEFL on the rocks?
The Teaching of English of as a Foreign Language 1 (TEFL) is a massive worldwide industry. Not only is it a foreign currency earner in a number of countries such as Australia and the UK, but it has been used as a cover for human trafficking.
I entered the profession because I wanted to return to south-east Asia and as a qualified and experienced school teacher I felt that this was a route which would provide me with a level of income sufficient for my needs. And so it has generally proved.
When I first arrived, at the tail end of 1987, I had been recruited by EEP, a language institute in South Jakarta, equipped with an internationally recognised Certificate in TEFL (CTEFL), gained after a grueling six week course in London at a cost of £1,000, an 18 month contract, somewhere to live and a return air ticket. I then learned the intricacies of syntax, grammar, collocation, phonetics and other confusing stuff, as well as how to pass on the knowledge to bright non-native speakers of all ages (6 - 83 years), at all levels, from elementary (SD) to university, and the full range of courses, from general to specific purposes (e.g. business), and academic, including international exams (the UCLES suite, ToEFL, IELTS).
When I arrived, there were as many as 50 similarly qualified colleagues, although I understand that this particular establishment has since shrunk to just a small branch in Bandung. The head office of another company I worked for, ILP, had 2,000 students passing through the doors of its main centre every week and employed 60 native speakers, all university graduates with a CETFL, and 40 Indonesian teachers of English who had 'graduated' from in-house training courses whose instructors were native speakers such as myself.
Then in 96/7 the Asian Economic Crisis (krismon) hit, swiftly followed by the civil unrest which unseated Suharto and ushered in reformasi. This lead to a massive exodus of expatriates, not only teachers. I surmise that most of the native speaker teachers who remained did so out of a contentment with family life here (e.g. me), out of a perceived lack of opportunity 'back home', or their sheer indolence.
Apart from a few plum positions with universities, or foreign government sponsored organisations such as the British Council and the Indonesia-Australia Language Foundation (IALF), all language institutes then had a simple credo - bums on seats. In other words, they were profit-driven.
New business models were set in motion. ILP, for example, followed the franchise route. Their best local (Indonesian) teachers were recruited to be the principals, known as Academic Co-ordinators in the international chain EF which provided the franchise model. ILP's in-house training programme for new teachers was shortened to three weeks from the previous four or five. Native speakers with an in-depth knowledge of the cultural norms of English and the reasoning behind the long-established methodology being in very short supply, inevitably and unfortunately the level of English and the quality of teaching has suffered.
New avenues of employment were opened in the formal school sector with the establishment of privately owned 'national plus' schools which were supposed to offer foreign curricula and, more recently, 'international' schools, which in the main have been classes within established schools which, although supposedly offering English native speakers teaching other subjects, have mainly been distinguished by the provision of air conditioning.
And this sector is where problems have arisen and the proposed 'solutions' offered by the Department of Education (Depdiknas) have thrown the TEFLing industry into turmoil, and its teachers into a state of insecurity, if not paranoia.
Not unexpectedly, one particular organisation, Yayasan Badan Pendidikan Kristen - Penabur, may have been the catalyst. I don't intend to go into my successful case (but yet to be finally resolved) legal case against them; if you want the gory details, my diatribes plus details of complaints from parents, students and other teachers, then either search 'Penabur' in the box provided on the right or click this link on my 'schooling' blog.
In the early stages of the Penabur project that employed me, a member of the Board of Management told me in all seriousness, "Parents want to see a white face in the classroom." (He also referred to local teachers as 'monkeys'.)
Apart from the sheer offensiveness (and inaccuracy) of that statement, it was an indication that all was not well within Penabur, that they had lost sight of the core values of schools.
A year or so ago, parents of students enrolled in the 'international class' in a Penabur senior high school were horrified to discover that the supposedly qualified native speaker English teacher was, to put it bluntly, illiterate. They organised a protest, a delegation I understand, to Depdiknas.
As a result, revised employment criteria are now being enforced - apparently. I add that caveat because Depdiknas has not unexpectedly misfired in its aims.
I was first alerted to the issue by a couple of emails from a correspondent who works for the Australian company TBI (which stands for The British Institute, even though the shares of the original British owners, Bell, have been bought out by an Australian company). He wrote: The Ed Dept now has a checklist (at least in our case) - one of the things to be checked is whether we have HIV or drugs in our urine. Oh, and we have to have a sworn translation of our CV. I am now illegal here pending the outcome of all this hullabaloo. Bit scarey really.
The gossip has it that ILP, Wall Street, a recent American entrant, and a local start up company, AIM, have had to reassess their employment of native speakers.
I have been unable to track down the checklist or a copy of the regulations issued by Depdiknas but if the above is true, then one must query the notion that an HIV test involves urine; surely it is blood that needs to be tested! As for a sworn translation of a CV, this is no guarantee of the truth therein. Besides, as a CV is a set of data - names, dates, addresses and the like - most of the content is untranslateable. It is as it is!
A bit of googling has produced a TBI online ad for overseas recruits dated 2010-10-05. I take this to mean 5th October, although it could well be 10th May, thus preceding the currentparanoia disarray in the industry.
Qualifications
CELTA, Trinity or equivalent certification (120-hour face-to-face (not online) course with assessed teaching practice) and a university degree. We prefer teachers with experience, but are prepared to consider newly qualified applicants.
N.B. Please note, due to Indonesian employment regulations, we are only able to employ native speaker teachers holding passports from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom or the United States.
The benefits offered by TBI are as good as they get and the good news is that Irish applicants are now welcome. The original list, issued by Depdiknas some 15 years ago, of those countries which have English as the first language and which are eligible as recruitment sources did not include Ireland.
The bad news, is that there is no new news about the employment of fluent (and literate) English speakers in schools and universities. Whereas the success of language schools is largely determined by their popularity, best engendered through word of mouth, the same cannot be said of grade schools which are obliged to teach subjects determined by Depdiknas.
Native speakers of English are also recruited by the private school sector, dominated by 'national plus' schools and, more recently, by schools which label themselves as 'international' because they are expected to teach the curricula of other countries. Originally, international schools were exclusively for the children of foreign nationals, but since 2003 (Act No. 20, year 2003 on National Education System)2, Indonesian nationals have been permitted to enrol their children.
These schools are not totally exempt from the dictates of Depdiknas as Indonesian children are required to sit the flawed national exams.
As the Warden of the fictional St.John's University in The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies (pub. Penguin 1982) says, "Education for immediate popular consumption is more popular than ever, and nobody wants to think of the intellectual tone of the nation."
What needs to be understood is that the upgrading of English in schools requires a recognition that students have different needs based on cultural and emotional needs, as well as their individual skills, talents and 'intelligences', as well as 'content knowledge'.
Act No.20 states: English is to be used as the medium of instruction for science, mathematics and core vocational subjects from Year 4 of primary school and throughout junior secondary school, senior secondary school and vocational secondary school.
Teachers must possess the competence required to teach their subjects through English.
An analysis2 of the 'international' schools points out that in 2007 and 2008 the Ministry of National Education, using TOEIC (the Test of English for International Communication) as its instrument, carried out a study of the English language competence of 27,000 teachers in 549 international standard junior secondary, senior secondary and senior vocational schools.
The findings of this study (Depdiknas 2009) showed that more than half of all teachers fell into the lowest competency band (‘novice’, scoring between 10 and 250 points). Meanwhile, fewer than 1% of teachers fell into the top two bands (‘advanced working proficiency’ scoring between 785 and 900 points and ‘general professional proficiency’ scoring 905-990 points).
A little more online investigation produces the following recent quote from Education Minister Mohammad Nuh who said that there are 2.6 million teachers in Indonesia, and around 57.4 percent or some 1.5 million of whom have Strata-1 degree while the rests (sic) are still vying to gain teaching certificate.
Further research indicates that barely 40% of subject teachers are actually qualified to teach that subject. Christine Hakim, the noted Indonesian actress and a Goodwill Ambassador for UNESCO, suggests that at least 2 million volunteer or part-time teachers are employed in Indonesia.
The TBI recruitment ad quoted above has been the norm for recruited native speaker teachers as long as I can remember; they (we) have brought untold benefits to Indonesians seeking advancement in their careers without the need to go overseas.
That Depdiknas is requiring that only native speaker teachers of English who have obtained a degree in education, rather than in other subjects, to seek employment in Indonesian schools is nonsensical when the criteria for its own 'local' teachers are nowhere near being met, and is yet another example of the bureaucracies' ability to mistake a tree for a forest.
This is not to say that the TEFL industry's standards cannot be improved, but a more considered approach is sorely needed. Teaching anything is not an easy option and, as in other countries, teachers do not enter the profession to financially enrich themselves. Teaching can be extremely stressful and the rewards are generally intangible.
Rather than implementing piecemeal 'solutions' which create further problems, the education sector - both private and public - needs a thorough review to ensure that national (and regional) social, rather than political, objectives are met.
As it is, the pluralism so often promulgated is showing signs of increased fragmentation.
....................................................................
1 aka TESOL - Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages and TESL - Teaching of English as a Second Language.
2An interesting analysis of the problems faced by 'International' schools can be found here.
My title is taken from a post on Ross McKay's blog. The current problems faced by the majority of non-Indonesian English teachers here in Indonesia was, however, forecast back in February on the Living in Indonesia forum.
I entered the profession because I wanted to return to south-east Asia and as a qualified and experienced school teacher I felt that this was a route which would provide me with a level of income sufficient for my needs. And so it has generally proved.
When I first arrived, at the tail end of 1987, I had been recruited by EEP, a language institute in South Jakarta, equipped with an internationally recognised Certificate in TEFL (CTEFL), gained after a grueling six week course in London at a cost of £1,000, an 18 month contract, somewhere to live and a return air ticket. I then learned the intricacies of syntax, grammar, collocation, phonetics and other confusing stuff, as well as how to pass on the knowledge to bright non-native speakers of all ages (6 - 83 years), at all levels, from elementary (SD) to university, and the full range of courses, from general to specific purposes (e.g. business), and academic, including international exams (the UCLES suite, ToEFL, IELTS).
When I arrived, there were as many as 50 similarly qualified colleagues, although I understand that this particular establishment has since shrunk to just a small branch in Bandung. The head office of another company I worked for, ILP, had 2,000 students passing through the doors of its main centre every week and employed 60 native speakers, all university graduates with a CETFL, and 40 Indonesian teachers of English who had 'graduated' from in-house training courses whose instructors were native speakers such as myself.
Then in 96/7 the Asian Economic Crisis (krismon) hit, swiftly followed by the civil unrest which unseated Suharto and ushered in reformasi. This lead to a massive exodus of expatriates, not only teachers. I surmise that most of the native speaker teachers who remained did so out of a contentment with family life here (e.g. me), out of a perceived lack of opportunity 'back home', or their sheer indolence.
Apart from a few plum positions with universities, or foreign government sponsored organisations such as the British Council and the Indonesia-Australia Language Foundation (IALF), all language institutes then had a simple credo - bums on seats. In other words, they were profit-driven.
New business models were set in motion. ILP, for example, followed the franchise route. Their best local (Indonesian) teachers were recruited to be the principals, known as Academic Co-ordinators in the international chain EF which provided the franchise model. ILP's in-house training programme for new teachers was shortened to three weeks from the previous four or five. Native speakers with an in-depth knowledge of the cultural norms of English and the reasoning behind the long-established methodology being in very short supply, inevitably and unfortunately the level of English and the quality of teaching has suffered.
New avenues of employment were opened in the formal school sector with the establishment of privately owned 'national plus' schools which were supposed to offer foreign curricula and, more recently, 'international' schools, which in the main have been classes within established schools which, although supposedly offering English native speakers teaching other subjects, have mainly been distinguished by the provision of air conditioning.
And this sector is where problems have arisen and the proposed 'solutions' offered by the Department of Education (Depdiknas) have thrown the TEFLing industry into turmoil, and its teachers into a state of insecurity, if not paranoia.
Not unexpectedly, one particular organisation, Yayasan Badan Pendidikan Kristen - Penabur, may have been the catalyst. I don't intend to go into my successful case (but yet to be finally resolved) legal case against them; if you want the gory details, my diatribes plus details of complaints from parents, students and other teachers, then either search 'Penabur' in the box provided on the right or click this link on my 'schooling' blog.
In the early stages of the Penabur project that employed me, a member of the Board of Management told me in all seriousness, "Parents want to see a white face in the classroom." (He also referred to local teachers as 'monkeys'.)
Apart from the sheer offensiveness (and inaccuracy) of that statement, it was an indication that all was not well within Penabur, that they had lost sight of the core values of schools.
A year or so ago, parents of students enrolled in the 'international class' in a Penabur senior high school were horrified to discover that the supposedly qualified native speaker English teacher was, to put it bluntly, illiterate. They organised a protest, a delegation I understand, to Depdiknas.
As a result, revised employment criteria are now being enforced - apparently. I add that caveat because Depdiknas has not unexpectedly misfired in its aims.
I was first alerted to the issue by a couple of emails from a correspondent who works for the Australian company TBI (which stands for The British Institute, even though the shares of the original British owners, Bell, have been bought out by an Australian company). He wrote: The Ed Dept now has a checklist (at least in our case) - one of the things to be checked is whether we have HIV or drugs in our urine. Oh, and we have to have a sworn translation of our CV. I am now illegal here pending the outcome of all this hullabaloo. Bit scarey really.
The gossip has it that ILP, Wall Street, a recent American entrant, and a local start up company, AIM, have had to reassess their employment of native speakers.
I have been unable to track down the checklist or a copy of the regulations issued by Depdiknas but if the above is true, then one must query the notion that an HIV test involves urine; surely it is blood that needs to be tested! As for a sworn translation of a CV, this is no guarantee of the truth therein. Besides, as a CV is a set of data - names, dates, addresses and the like - most of the content is untranslateable. It is as it is!
A bit of googling has produced a TBI online ad for overseas recruits dated 2010-10-05. I take this to mean 5th October, although it could well be 10th May, thus preceding the current
Qualifications
CELTA, Trinity or equivalent certification (120-hour face-to-face (not online) course with assessed teaching practice) and a university degree. We prefer teachers with experience, but are prepared to consider newly qualified applicants.
N.B. Please note, due to Indonesian employment regulations, we are only able to employ native speaker teachers holding passports from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom or the United States.
The benefits offered by TBI are as good as they get and the good news is that Irish applicants are now welcome. The original list, issued by Depdiknas some 15 years ago, of those countries which have English as the first language and which are eligible as recruitment sources did not include Ireland.
The bad news, is that there is no new news about the employment of fluent (and literate) English speakers in schools and universities. Whereas the success of language schools is largely determined by their popularity, best engendered through word of mouth, the same cannot be said of grade schools which are obliged to teach subjects determined by Depdiknas.
Native speakers of English are also recruited by the private school sector, dominated by 'national plus' schools and, more recently, by schools which label themselves as 'international' because they are expected to teach the curricula of other countries. Originally, international schools were exclusively for the children of foreign nationals, but since 2003 (Act No. 20, year 2003 on National Education System)2, Indonesian nationals have been permitted to enrol their children.
These schools are not totally exempt from the dictates of Depdiknas as Indonesian children are required to sit the flawed national exams.
As the Warden of the fictional St.John's University in The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies (pub. Penguin 1982) says, "Education for immediate popular consumption is more popular than ever, and nobody wants to think of the intellectual tone of the nation."
What needs to be understood is that the upgrading of English in schools requires a recognition that students have different needs based on cultural and emotional needs, as well as their individual skills, talents and 'intelligences', as well as 'content knowledge'.
Act No.20 states: English is to be used as the medium of instruction for science, mathematics and core vocational subjects from Year 4 of primary school and throughout junior secondary school, senior secondary school and vocational secondary school.
Teachers must possess the competence required to teach their subjects through English.
An analysis2 of the 'international' schools points out that in 2007 and 2008 the Ministry of National Education, using TOEIC (the Test of English for International Communication) as its instrument, carried out a study of the English language competence of 27,000 teachers in 549 international standard junior secondary, senior secondary and senior vocational schools.
The findings of this study (Depdiknas 2009) showed that more than half of all teachers fell into the lowest competency band (‘novice’, scoring between 10 and 250 points). Meanwhile, fewer than 1% of teachers fell into the top two bands (‘advanced working proficiency’ scoring between 785 and 900 points and ‘general professional proficiency’ scoring 905-990 points).
A little more online investigation produces the following recent quote from Education Minister Mohammad Nuh who said that there are 2.6 million teachers in Indonesia, and around 57.4 percent or some 1.5 million of whom have Strata-1 degree while the rests (sic) are still vying to gain teaching certificate.
Further research indicates that barely 40% of subject teachers are actually qualified to teach that subject. Christine Hakim, the noted Indonesian actress and a Goodwill Ambassador for UNESCO, suggests that at least 2 million volunteer or part-time teachers are employed in Indonesia.
The TBI recruitment ad quoted above has been the norm for recruited native speaker teachers as long as I can remember; they (we) have brought untold benefits to Indonesians seeking advancement in their careers without the need to go overseas.
That Depdiknas is requiring that only native speaker teachers of English who have obtained a degree in education, rather than in other subjects, to seek employment in Indonesian schools is nonsensical when the criteria for its own 'local' teachers are nowhere near being met, and is yet another example of the bureaucracies' ability to mistake a tree for a forest.
This is not to say that the TEFL industry's standards cannot be improved, but a more considered approach is sorely needed. Teaching anything is not an easy option and, as in other countries, teachers do not enter the profession to financially enrich themselves. Teaching can be extremely stressful and the rewards are generally intangible.
Rather than implementing piecemeal 'solutions' which create further problems, the education sector - both private and public - needs a thorough review to ensure that national (and regional) social, rather than political, objectives are met.
As it is, the pluralism so often promulgated is showing signs of increased fragmentation.
....................................................................
1 aka TESOL - Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages and TESL - Teaching of English as a Second Language.
2An interesting analysis of the problems faced by 'International' schools can be found here.
My title is taken from a post on Ross McKay's blog. The current problems faced by the majority of non-Indonesian English teachers here in Indonesia was, however, forecast back in February on the Living in Indonesia forum.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Give Kids A Break
Four students have been expelled from a senior high school in Riau, South Sumatra, for 'defaming' their teacher on Facebook. The comments were reportedly of a personal nature and offensive to women.
The school's deputy principal, Yose Rizal, said the students' failure to complete and submit homework assignments to the teacher contributed to the decision to dismiss them. Yose said he hoped the decision would send a strong message to other students that such behavior was not acceptable.
That says a lot about what is wrong with the Indonesia's schooling system, especially as the subject that the teacher was supposedly charged with teaching is 'Life Skills'.
Come to think of it, that is what all teachers (and parents) are responsible for inculcating. As a teacher and parent I do know that adults make 'mistakes', but then there is little guidance for us either.
Competition is praised above co-operation so that societal prerogatives are determined by online social networks rather than leadership for the common good.
Public transport is privately owned, as is the water supply, and garbage isn't properly managed so residents, of all classes, dispose of it willy-nilly.
The current national census cannot be completed as scheduled because rich folks in their enclaves deny access to officials because they have something, their ill-gotten wealth, to hide.
And kids get blamed for not following the rules!
The results of the remedial tests following the senior high school ujian monyet have been announced. Teachers in Yogya are angry because of the "premature announcement", but they are missing the point.
Out of 150,410 students who had to sit the repeat national exams, how come only 11,814 'failed'? How is it possible to master the 'facts' tested in such a short while since the original exams were sat in March? Are these remedial tests easier? If so, why weren't the set of March exams?
One contributing factor is that the educators and bureaucrats responsible for the whole debacle are lacking in any semblance of awareness of how teenagers think. I'm not suggesting that they should be neuro-scientists, but applying the academic skill of research - a skill which their positions of power indicate they should have - would give them a modicum of insight into how teenagers think.
For a start, Dr. Paul Kelley, headteacher of a high school in northern England and author of Making Minds: What's Wrong With Education?, says that creating long-term memories is at the core of education.
In 2005, a key discovery was published in Scientific American explaining how long-term memories are formed in the brain. Douglas Fields, of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and his team in the US not only revealed exactly how long-term memories are formed but also, more significantly for teachers, how they can be created. The biological basis of a memory is a pathway of cells linked within the brain. His team looked at how these pathways were formed and how each cell was "switched on" and became linked to other cells.
Surprisingly, constant stimulation of the cell did not make it switch on. Stimulation had to be separated by gaps when the cell was not stimulated. The breakthrough came when the team began to realise the length of stimulation was not vital, but the gap between stimulations
So Dr. Kelly and his teaching staff established 'spaced learning' which works no matter what subject you are teaching. In spaced learning, you have 10-minute breaks between three intensive sessions of 15-20 minutes teaching. In each of the sessions, you repeat material but present it differently, deepening and extending it.
In the breaks students might juggle, play basketball or model animals out of Play-Doh. These distracter activities leave the cells to carry out chemical processes.
Or access their Facebook accounts?
An English expression has it that 'procrastination is the thief of time', but I prefer to think of an Indonesian cup of coffee in which the grounds take time to settle at the bottom of the cup. That is an apt description of the process of leaning; one must allow time for the absorption of new information, and breaks are certainly one key to successful learning.
A different approach to the 'chalk and talk' methodology is also required. Rather than 'preaching' or lecturing ('hectoring' may be a better word) with theoretical 'knowledge' to be copied from the classroom white/blackboard, teachers need to offer students more opportunities for experiment and for inductive learning.
Allowing socialised discussions between students in the lessons would be a good start!
Further reinforcement for Dr. Kelley's pedagogical approach is offered by more recent research.
According to Dr. Iroise Dumontheil of University College London's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, one of the authors of the research to be published today in the Journal of Neuroscience, "It's not the fault of teenagers that they can't concentrate and are easily distracted. It's to do with the structure of their brains. Adolescents simply don't have the same mental capacities as an adult because teenagers are still children."
I think that's similar to my problem too; although I think like an adult, I remain a kid at heart.
The school's deputy principal, Yose Rizal, said the students' failure to complete and submit homework assignments to the teacher contributed to the decision to dismiss them. Yose said he hoped the decision would send a strong message to other students that such behavior was not acceptable.
That says a lot about what is wrong with the Indonesia's schooling system, especially as the subject that the teacher was supposedly charged with teaching is 'Life Skills'.
Come to think of it, that is what all teachers (and parents) are responsible for inculcating. As a teacher and parent I do know that adults make 'mistakes', but then there is little guidance for us either.
Competition is praised above co-operation so that societal prerogatives are determined by online social networks rather than leadership for the common good.
Public transport is privately owned, as is the water supply, and garbage isn't properly managed so residents, of all classes, dispose of it willy-nilly.
The current national census cannot be completed as scheduled because rich folks in their enclaves deny access to officials because they have something, their ill-gotten wealth, to hide.
And kids get blamed for not following the rules!
The results of the remedial tests following the senior high school ujian monyet have been announced. Teachers in Yogya are angry because of the "premature announcement", but they are missing the point.
Out of 150,410 students who had to sit the repeat national exams, how come only 11,814 'failed'? How is it possible to master the 'facts' tested in such a short while since the original exams were sat in March? Are these remedial tests easier? If so, why weren't the set of March exams?
One contributing factor is that the educators and bureaucrats responsible for the whole debacle are lacking in any semblance of awareness of how teenagers think. I'm not suggesting that they should be neuro-scientists, but applying the academic skill of research - a skill which their positions of power indicate they should have - would give them a modicum of insight into how teenagers think.
For a start, Dr. Paul Kelley, headteacher of a high school in northern England and author of Making Minds: What's Wrong With Education?, says that creating long-term memories is at the core of education.
In 2005, a key discovery was published in Scientific American explaining how long-term memories are formed in the brain. Douglas Fields, of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and his team in the US not only revealed exactly how long-term memories are formed but also, more significantly for teachers, how they can be created. The biological basis of a memory is a pathway of cells linked within the brain. His team looked at how these pathways were formed and how each cell was "switched on" and became linked to other cells.
Surprisingly, constant stimulation of the cell did not make it switch on. Stimulation had to be separated by gaps when the cell was not stimulated. The breakthrough came when the team began to realise the length of stimulation was not vital, but the gap between stimulations
So Dr. Kelly and his teaching staff established 'spaced learning' which works no matter what subject you are teaching. In spaced learning, you have 10-minute breaks between three intensive sessions of 15-20 minutes teaching. In each of the sessions, you repeat material but present it differently, deepening and extending it.
In the breaks students might juggle, play basketball or model animals out of Play-Doh. These distracter activities leave the cells to carry out chemical processes.
Or access their Facebook accounts?
An English expression has it that 'procrastination is the thief of time', but I prefer to think of an Indonesian cup of coffee in which the grounds take time to settle at the bottom of the cup. That is an apt description of the process of leaning; one must allow time for the absorption of new information, and breaks are certainly one key to successful learning.
A different approach to the 'chalk and talk' methodology is also required. Rather than 'preaching' or lecturing ('hectoring' may be a better word) with theoretical 'knowledge' to be copied from the classroom white/blackboard, teachers need to offer students more opportunities for experiment and for inductive learning.
Allowing socialised discussions between students in the lessons would be a good start!
Further reinforcement for Dr. Kelley's pedagogical approach is offered by more recent research.
According to Dr. Iroise Dumontheil of University College London's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, one of the authors of the research to be published today in the Journal of Neuroscience, "It's not the fault of teenagers that they can't concentrate and are easily distracted. It's to do with the structure of their brains. Adolescents simply don't have the same mental capacities as an adult because teenagers are still children."
I think that's similar to my problem too; although I think like an adult, I remain a kid at heart.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
You’ve got to have standards
Especially if you're spending the money of Indonesia's rakyat (citizenry) on full colour quarter page ads in the Jakarta Post.
Wikipedia has this to say about Bank Rakyat Indonesia (tr. People's Bank of Indonesia).
It is one of the larger banks in Indonesia. It specialises in small scale and microfinance style borrowing from and lending to its approximately 30 million retail clients through its over 4,000 branches, units and rural service posts. It also has a comparatively small, but growing, corporate business.
It is currently 70% government owned operating company (Persero) and has been government owned for the entire period since the war of independence (1945 to 1949) to November 2003, when 30% of its shares were sold through an IPO.
And this is what BRI has to say to its "small scale and microfinance style" clientele.
Fly Anywhere with your Reserved Private Aircraft
Proudly present a new and exclusive reservation service to
fly with private aircraft to any destination you would like to go.
Enjoy convenience at it's truly means as our special customer
Term & Condition apply
BRI Prioritas
Untuk Pribadi Terpilih (tr.For 'Choice' People)
I'm going to ignore the appalling English and not going to wonder about the singular term and condition. However, it is worth noting that of late society seems unable to focus on what really matters.
For example, note the use of the word bule in this headline: Selundupkan Biji Ganja Bule Jerman Dibekuk (White German Marijuana Smuggler Arrested)
As a regular reader (Hi Del) commented, "What if the guy was black? How would they get round that? Interesting that you're a "bule" first and a "orang" second."
This surface attention is widespread.
A number of schools have taken to labelling themselves as "International", which is strange as they are extremely unlikely to have expatriate students or even come close to what they advertise.
A number of complaints in the media, such as those I highlighted here seem to have forced the government to take action. As per usual, they're missing the point and leaving many educators confused.
A 2009 education ministerial, which will come into force on March 30, 2010, stipulates that the curricula applied at international schools must cover the teaching of religion, civics and the Indonesian language. The teaching of these three subjects must be conducted in Indonesian.
There are a number of International Schools in Indonesia which were established during the Suharto era to provide schooling for the children of peripatetic expatriate workers, generally 'consultants' and managerial staff working for multi-national companies, such as oil companies. Parallel schools in other countries offered a continuity of education for these children.
Leading up to, and especially following the Asian Economic Meltdown of the late 90s (and known as krismon here) jobs were expected to be 'Indonesianised' through a "transfer of technology". Naturally, the school rolls tumbled. Because they were expected to be financially self-sufficient, many schools began to accept the children of better off Indonesians who would otherwise be sending their children to study in Singapore.
Mistakes were certainly made. After all, the Jakarta International School (JIS) should not have accepted the young son of Theo Toemion, the then chairman of Indonesia's Investment Coordinating Board, who assaulted the 14 year old referee of his 7 year old son's basketball match and executives from U.S. companies including ExxonMobil, Nike, Unocal and ConocoPhillips.
Theo was subsequently jailed for massive corruption. Presumably some of his ill-gotten gains found their way into the coffers of JIS.
And such is the amount of such spare cash floating around that a number of private schools, including Penabur, which charge high fees for teaching to the test, decided to cream off some of it by opening so-called 'international classes' in their regular schools.
A few white faces, never mind the qualifications - even naval chefs will do - and a few foreign course books, mainly from Singapore, and they had ready made glossy advertising.
But it's all gone wrong. There are few schools which offer - and I'm quoting from a recent job ad - active, student-centered learning and facilitate active exploration,discovery and interaction with people and materials. That this ad was placed by a school which is apparently Leading the Human Development Paradigm does not necessarily mean anything other than that they hiding behind buzzwords with little sense of what they mean. After all, they have a very high staff turnover.
Every time there is a new Minister of Education we hear tell of a new curriculum. New partnerships are formed with companies which rebuild a few rural schools in the name of corporate social responsibility, and other minor tinkerings take place, yet aesthetics have yet to take over from bean counting.
A recent editorial in the Jakarta Post closed with these remarks.
It is the task of all elements in this country to improve the quality of our education, which ranks low even among Asian countries. Therefore, we appreciate the number of corporations that run schools, including those with international standards.
However, it is also unwise for the government to push certain schools, including state ones, to open the international standards of services in the absence of proper educational infrastructure and teaching staff who meet the requirements set for such schools. Besides, we need all categories of schools to serve society’s various demands.
I only half agree with these fine sentiments because they don't go far enough. It is my contention that if Indonesia, by which I mean all sectors of society concerned with schools and the nature of education, and not merely with upgrading the nation's schooling to an 'international' level, should establish an independent commission. This would have the remit to establish curricula for schools which take into account the multi-cultural distinctiveness of the country, the disparity between the regions in terms of economic resources, and the multiple-intelligences of students.
The commission should also oversee the establishment of a "proper educational infrastructure" including an overhaul of teacher training so that all teachers (including expatriates) are suitably qualified and are given regular professional back up and subject updates.
The Department of Education, whilst continuing to administrate, would also need 'supervision' to ensure that funds are not 'mislaid' and that targets are met. Above all, procedures and priorities should not be subject to whim of political (or business) appointees who invariably have short-term goals.
This will all inevitably take longer than a government's term of office, but a dynamic country needs people with vision.
It's a myopic malaise which has resulted in the current concern over the educational standards which ill-serve the rakyat.
They also don't need crap ads offering a private plane ride.
Wikipedia has this to say about Bank Rakyat Indonesia (tr. People's Bank of Indonesia).
It is one of the larger banks in Indonesia. It specialises in small scale and microfinance style borrowing from and lending to its approximately 30 million retail clients through its over 4,000 branches, units and rural service posts. It also has a comparatively small, but growing, corporate business.
It is currently 70% government owned operating company (Persero) and has been government owned for the entire period since the war of independence (1945 to 1949) to November 2003, when 30% of its shares were sold through an IPO.
And this is what BRI has to say to its "small scale and microfinance style" clientele.
Fly Anywhere with your Reserved Private Aircraft
Proudly present a new and exclusive reservation service to
fly with private aircraft to any destination you would like to go.
Enjoy convenience at it's truly means as our special customer
Term & Condition apply
BRI Prioritas
Untuk Pribadi Terpilih (tr.For 'Choice' People)
I'm going to ignore the appalling English and not going to wonder about the singular term and condition. However, it is worth noting that of late society seems unable to focus on what really matters.
For example, note the use of the word bule in this headline: Selundupkan Biji Ganja Bule Jerman Dibekuk (White German Marijuana Smuggler Arrested)
As a regular reader (Hi Del) commented, "What if the guy was black? How would they get round that? Interesting that you're a "bule" first and a "orang" second."
This surface attention is widespread.
A number of schools have taken to labelling themselves as "International", which is strange as they are extremely unlikely to have expatriate students or even come close to what they advertise.
A number of complaints in the media, such as those I highlighted here seem to have forced the government to take action. As per usual, they're missing the point and leaving many educators confused.
A 2009 education ministerial, which will come into force on March 30, 2010, stipulates that the curricula applied at international schools must cover the teaching of religion, civics and the Indonesian language. The teaching of these three subjects must be conducted in Indonesian.
There are a number of International Schools in Indonesia which were established during the Suharto era to provide schooling for the children of peripatetic expatriate workers, generally 'consultants' and managerial staff working for multi-national companies, such as oil companies. Parallel schools in other countries offered a continuity of education for these children.
Leading up to, and especially following the Asian Economic Meltdown of the late 90s (and known as krismon here) jobs were expected to be 'Indonesianised' through a "transfer of technology". Naturally, the school rolls tumbled. Because they were expected to be financially self-sufficient, many schools began to accept the children of better off Indonesians who would otherwise be sending their children to study in Singapore.
Mistakes were certainly made. After all, the Jakarta International School (JIS) should not have accepted the young son of Theo Toemion, the then chairman of Indonesia's Investment Coordinating Board, who assaulted the 14 year old referee of his 7 year old son's basketball match and executives from U.S. companies including ExxonMobil, Nike, Unocal and ConocoPhillips.
Theo was subsequently jailed for massive corruption. Presumably some of his ill-gotten gains found their way into the coffers of JIS.
And such is the amount of such spare cash floating around that a number of private schools, including Penabur, which charge high fees for teaching to the test, decided to cream off some of it by opening so-called 'international classes' in their regular schools.
A few white faces, never mind the qualifications - even naval chefs will do - and a few foreign course books, mainly from Singapore, and they had ready made glossy advertising.
But it's all gone wrong. There are few schools which offer - and I'm quoting from a recent job ad - active, student-centered learning and facilitate active exploration,discovery and interaction with people and materials. That this ad was placed by a school which is apparently Leading the Human Development Paradigm does not necessarily mean anything other than that they hiding behind buzzwords with little sense of what they mean. After all, they have a very high staff turnover.
Every time there is a new Minister of Education we hear tell of a new curriculum. New partnerships are formed with companies which rebuild a few rural schools in the name of corporate social responsibility, and other minor tinkerings take place, yet aesthetics have yet to take over from bean counting.
A recent editorial in the Jakarta Post closed with these remarks.
It is the task of all elements in this country to improve the quality of our education, which ranks low even among Asian countries. Therefore, we appreciate the number of corporations that run schools, including those with international standards.
However, it is also unwise for the government to push certain schools, including state ones, to open the international standards of services in the absence of proper educational infrastructure and teaching staff who meet the requirements set for such schools. Besides, we need all categories of schools to serve society’s various demands.
I only half agree with these fine sentiments because they don't go far enough. It is my contention that if Indonesia, by which I mean all sectors of society concerned with schools and the nature of education, and not merely with upgrading the nation's schooling to an 'international' level, should establish an independent commission. This would have the remit to establish curricula for schools which take into account the multi-cultural distinctiveness of the country, the disparity between the regions in terms of economic resources, and the multiple-intelligences of students.
The commission should also oversee the establishment of a "proper educational infrastructure" including an overhaul of teacher training so that all teachers (including expatriates) are suitably qualified and are given regular professional back up and subject updates.
The Department of Education, whilst continuing to administrate, would also need 'supervision' to ensure that funds are not 'mislaid' and that targets are met. Above all, procedures and priorities should not be subject to whim of political (or business) appointees who invariably have short-term goals.
This will all inevitably take longer than a government's term of office, but a dynamic country needs people with vision.
It's a myopic malaise which has resulted in the current concern over the educational standards which ill-serve the rakyat.
They also don't need crap ads offering a private plane ride.
Friday, March 26, 2010
National Exams are A-U-D-F-C-K-E-G
This week, six million grade 12 senior high school students have been undergoing the unnecessary yet ritual torture of 'graduation' tests.
Our Kid is at home today, as are most grades 7 and 8 junior high school students. He'll be at home all next week as well because grade 9s have to go through the same robotic hell, using a 2B pencil to fill in little circles which are scanned by computer.
Unnecessary? Of course they are because the only teaching of 'relevance' these students receive in the preceding months is geared to answering the test questions, many of which are, as I've often noted, badly formulated with possible multiple correct answers or none at all.
The following headlines gleaned from the Jakarta Post tell the tale.
Tuesday 23 March
- Despite 'leaks', first day of national exams goes smoothly.
- Leaks, problems mar national final exam
Wednesday 24 March
- National exams still problematic*
Thursday 25 March
- Schools urged to have post-exam cooldown period
(for students suffering stress.)
Friday 26 March
- Students from across the country to take UGM tests.
Yogya's University of Gadjah Mada will hold entrance exams on Sunday, thus demonstrating that the national exams are of no value in determining who goes on to further education.
*The same problems crop up every year. These include misdirected packages of exam papers, sets of answers being sold, answers being sent by text message, teachers changing students' answer sheets, and students unable to take test due to sickness or pregnancy and uncertain whether they can take them at a later date. .
Fellow blogger, Harry Nizam, has suggested that my posts are rarely positive but, hey, here's a positive suggestion for the cooling down period.
Let them play games and Countdown, a popular TV game show which tests vocabulary and maths, can be easily adapted for classroom use.
This is a screengrab from Tuesday's show.
Our Kid is at home today, as are most grades 7 and 8 junior high school students. He'll be at home all next week as well because grade 9s have to go through the same robotic hell, using a 2B pencil to fill in little circles which are scanned by computer.
Unnecessary? Of course they are because the only teaching of 'relevance' these students receive in the preceding months is geared to answering the test questions, many of which are, as I've often noted, badly formulated with possible multiple correct answers or none at all.
The following headlines gleaned from the Jakarta Post tell the tale.
Tuesday 23 March
- Despite 'leaks', first day of national exams goes smoothly.
- Leaks, problems mar national final exam
Wednesday 24 March
- National exams still problematic*
Thursday 25 March
- Schools urged to have post-exam cooldown period
(for students suffering stress.)
Friday 26 March
- Students from across the country to take UGM tests.
Yogya's University of Gadjah Mada will hold entrance exams on Sunday, thus demonstrating that the national exams are of no value in determining who goes on to further education.
*The same problems crop up every year. These include misdirected packages of exam papers, sets of answers being sold, answers being sent by text message, teachers changing students' answer sheets, and students unable to take test due to sickness or pregnancy and uncertain whether they can take them at a later date. .
Fellow blogger, Harry Nizam, has suggested that my posts are rarely positive but, hey, here's a positive suggestion for the cooling down period.
Let them play games and Countdown, a popular TV game show which tests vocabulary and maths, can be easily adapted for classroom use.
This is a screengrab from Tuesday's show.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
The Intelligence(s) of Bureaucrats
It's not just here in Indonesia that the ujian monyet exists.
[In the USA and Canada], students entering university can't read and write properly and are often required to take extra curricular courses during the freshman year of university in order to make up.
...... the system [in the UK] is unsatisfactory. The student may reach twenty years of age and has only been expected to increase his memory. He is not required to think until attempting a Masters. It seems a bit late in the day unless all we are trying to do is provide accountants, engineers, etc., for the commercial system.
That these comments are from an article in the UK Guardian is of little comfort because I do feel bad.
As a parent here in Indonesia, I have to help, and pay for extra help, so my 13 year old son can master test skills, to memorise irrelevant 'facts' decreed by bureaucrats in their offices rather than his teachers at the black or white boards; they are akin to front-line infantry troops who bear the burdens of 'failure' master-minded by armchair generals.
Our Kid's best 'scores' come in unquantifiable 'arts' subjects, Art, Music, and languages (inc. Sundanese) which, apart from English and Indonesian, are not part of the national exams, so he isn't going to become an accountant or engineer.
Most students don't. Or can't.
Many graduates in the UK and here fail to find work in their chosen disciplines, or are 'forced' to work as unpaid interns for 'trial' periods with no hope of permanent employment.
As I and countless others have written, learning how to 'pass' a test is the underlying fault. The tests are made by humans yet are set purely for their ease in marking - by computers. 'Garbage in, garbage out' is an expression not heard much since the early days of personal computing, yet it has never been truer than now.
This trend has its roots in mid-70's at the dawn of the 'free trade-globalisation' era, with the primary aim of turning us all into consumers. Conglomerates are robot tradesmen which aim to sell to ever younger purchasers of their products. (There was a time when comfort was more important than style, so why does Our Kid scorn Adidas trainers in favour of Reebok's?*)
Conformity may have a value in societies governed by rigid, authoritarian regimes, but Indonesia is suffering the growing pains of an emerging democracy with the freedom to express opinions and has no need of mechanised, roboticised, lobotomised 'norms'.
Now that the internet offers boundless information as 'facts', it is little wonder that, much as it may be criticised, plagiarism plagues universities and schools.
Teaching for computerised tests does little to encourage originality of thought or action. Personal experience is a major key to critical reasoning and forming judgements, yet school children are not expected to assume individual responsibility for their actions. They are too busy memorising largely irrelevant information with little context in their daily lives or, indeed, their futures.
Current teachers and bureaucrats were students during Suharto's New Order when dissent was actively discouraged so, although some do, most cannot (yet) be expected to expand and enhance the mandated curriculum, much as they may wish to.
So what is the alternative?
Simply put, it is for society to recognise the freedom to be different, to explore and to be creative. After all, we have different aptitudes drawn from our genetic sources and (hopefully) fostered through our home environments.
In 1983, Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University, developed the theory of multiple intelligences, a critique of the notion that there exists but a single human intelligence that can be adequately assessed by standard psychometric instruments (i.e. tests).
He originally proposed seven intelligences, later adding 'Naturalist', and more recently a ninth, Existential ('reality smart' - the ability and tendency to pose and ponder questions about life, death, and ultimate realities, generally first manifested among teenagers in their search for identity.)
I've added the possible careers of those folk whose strongest intelligence is as indicated.
A major overhaul of school curricula is required, rather than piecemeal tinkering. I can therefore only offer faint praise to SBY's newish Minister of Education, Muhammad Nuh, who has talked of introducing an entrepreneurship-based curriculum for the 2010-2011 academic year.
He said that the substance of the entrepreneurship-based curriculum would be included in the curriculum of each level of education. [It} would not overhaul the previous curriculum but an entrepreneurship substance would be included in it.
Basically the entrepreneurship curriculum was aimed at instilling entrepreneurship characters to students, including flexibility to think, creativities (sic), innovation and sense of willing to know.
“The first thing that has to be formed with students is flexibility in thinking because this will generate their creativities. One will not be creative if he or she is rigid in thinking.”
I'll leave it to you to work out which 'intelligence' is manifested by most bureaucrats.
.........................................
*Nike apparel is banned in Jakartass Towers until Nike unequivocally confirms that locally-owned factories manufacturing their products conform to the minimum requirements of Indonesian employment regulations.
[In the USA and Canada], students entering university can't read and write properly and are often required to take extra curricular courses during the freshman year of university in order to make up.
...... the system [in the UK] is unsatisfactory. The student may reach twenty years of age and has only been expected to increase his memory. He is not required to think until attempting a Masters. It seems a bit late in the day unless all we are trying to do is provide accountants, engineers, etc., for the commercial system.
That these comments are from an article in the UK Guardian is of little comfort because I do feel bad.
As a parent here in Indonesia, I have to help, and pay for extra help, so my 13 year old son can master test skills, to memorise irrelevant 'facts' decreed by bureaucrats in their offices rather than his teachers at the black or white boards; they are akin to front-line infantry troops who bear the burdens of 'failure' master-minded by armchair generals.
Our Kid's best 'scores' come in unquantifiable 'arts' subjects, Art, Music, and languages (inc. Sundanese) which, apart from English and Indonesian, are not part of the national exams, so he isn't going to become an accountant or engineer.
Most students don't. Or can't.
Many graduates in the UK and here fail to find work in their chosen disciplines, or are 'forced' to work as unpaid interns for 'trial' periods with no hope of permanent employment.
As I and countless others have written, learning how to 'pass' a test is the underlying fault. The tests are made by humans yet are set purely for their ease in marking - by computers. 'Garbage in, garbage out' is an expression not heard much since the early days of personal computing, yet it has never been truer than now.
This trend has its roots in mid-70's at the dawn of the 'free trade-globalisation' era, with the primary aim of turning us all into consumers. Conglomerates are robot tradesmen which aim to sell to ever younger purchasers of their products. (There was a time when comfort was more important than style, so why does Our Kid scorn Adidas trainers in favour of Reebok's?*)
Conformity may have a value in societies governed by rigid, authoritarian regimes, but Indonesia is suffering the growing pains of an emerging democracy with the freedom to express opinions and has no need of mechanised, roboticised, lobotomised 'norms'.
Now that the internet offers boundless information as 'facts', it is little wonder that, much as it may be criticised, plagiarism plagues universities and schools.
Teaching for computerised tests does little to encourage originality of thought or action. Personal experience is a major key to critical reasoning and forming judgements, yet school children are not expected to assume individual responsibility for their actions. They are too busy memorising largely irrelevant information with little context in their daily lives or, indeed, their futures.
Current teachers and bureaucrats were students during Suharto's New Order when dissent was actively discouraged so, although some do, most cannot (yet) be expected to expand and enhance the mandated curriculum, much as they may wish to.
So what is the alternative?
Simply put, it is for society to recognise the freedom to be different, to explore and to be creative. After all, we have different aptitudes drawn from our genetic sources and (hopefully) fostered through our home environments.
In 1983, Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University, developed the theory of multiple intelligences, a critique of the notion that there exists but a single human intelligence that can be adequately assessed by standard psychometric instruments (i.e. tests).
He originally proposed seven intelligences, later adding 'Naturalist', and more recently a ninth, Existential ('reality smart' - the ability and tendency to pose and ponder questions about life, death, and ultimate realities, generally first manifested among teenagers in their search for identity.)
I've added the possible careers of those folk whose strongest intelligence is as indicated.
- Linguistic (‘word smart’ - writers, public speakers, teachers, and actors):
- Logical-mathematical (‘number/reasoning smart’ - scientists, computer programmers, lawyers or accountants)
- Spatial (‘picture smart’ - builders, graphic artists, architects, cartographers, sculptors)
- Bodily-Kinesthetic (‘body smart’ - athletes, surgeons, dancers, inventors)
- Musical (‘music smart’ - composers, singers, songwriters, music teachers)
- Interpersonal (‘people smart’ - peacemakers, teachers, therapists, salespeople)
- Intrapersonal (‘self smart’ - philosophers, psychiatrists, religious leaders)
- Naturalist (‘nature smart’ - environmentalists, botanists, farmers, biologists)
A major overhaul of school curricula is required, rather than piecemeal tinkering. I can therefore only offer faint praise to SBY's newish Minister of Education, Muhammad Nuh, who has talked of introducing an entrepreneurship-based curriculum for the 2010-2011 academic year.
He said that the substance of the entrepreneurship-based curriculum would be included in the curriculum of each level of education. [It} would not overhaul the previous curriculum but an entrepreneurship substance would be included in it.
Basically the entrepreneurship curriculum was aimed at instilling entrepreneurship characters to students, including flexibility to think, creativities (sic), innovation and sense of willing to know.
“The first thing that has to be formed with students is flexibility in thinking because this will generate their creativities. One will not be creative if he or she is rigid in thinking.”
I'll leave it to you to work out which 'intelligence' is manifested by most bureaucrats.
.........................................
*Nike apparel is banned in Jakartass Towers until Nike unequivocally confirms that locally-owned factories manufacturing their products conform to the minimum requirements of Indonesian employment regulations.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Parents demand refunds from school over alleged deception
In September 2008, Sungkono Sadikin wrote a letter to Kompass complaining about the deception practiced by BPK Penabur in its so-called 'International School' in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.
I doubt that he received much joy, but then his complaints were centred around the lack of qualifications of the staff and that he didn't get the 'service' he expected as, it appeared, the management were "arogan".
That is not unexpected as this thread amplifies.
Today, I was pleasantly surprised* to read the following article in the Jakarta Post.
Having spent thousands of dollars registering his 6-year-old son at BPK Penabur International School in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, in 2008, businessman David Wongso was expecting to see his son’s education handled by professionals, he says.
However, David began to question the school’s credibility over the next few months when he found extensive English grammatical errors in his son’s worksheets from the school.
“Initially I just thought it was typos, but when I saw similar mistakes happening again over the following days I realized there could be something wrong with the quality of the school’s teachers,” he said.
David was among three parents who reported the 60-year-old BPK Penabur institution last year to police for deception.
After registering his son at the institution’s newly opened international school, David said he had felt deceived at information presented in the school’s promotional leaflet and magazine advertisement.
According to the ad and pamphlet, the school held a license from Cambridge University to apply its international curriculum. While the school did employ several native-English-speaking teachers, the claim about the license was not true, he said.
“After we checked the school’s status with the Cambridge representative for the Asia-Pacific region, we were surprised to find that it hadn’t got their official license yet,” he said, adding that he and 17 parents of first-grader students had subsequently requested the school return their money.
David had spent a total of US$5,700 — comprising $3,000 for an entrance fee and $2,700 for 9 months’ tuition.
The request, however, was rejected, forcing most of the parents to keep their children enrolled at the school.
It was only David and three other parents who finally moved their children to another school in early 2009.
BPK Penabur chairman Robert Robianto, however, said it was impossible for the school to return the parents’ money because it was their decision to register their children at the school.
He also denied allegations that the school had no license to run a Cambridge-based curriculum, saying it had secured a license for their international school in Tanjung Duren, West Jakarta, in 2006.
“We also secured [a Cambridge] license for our international school in Kelapa Gading,” he told the Jakarta Post.
Hasyim Widhiarto, Jakarta Post
Three years ago, Ukrida Penabur Internasional, the programme employing expatriate teachers in Jakarta, there were but two qualified school teachers out of around 16 'teachers'. and not all even had the minimal qualification of a Certificate of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (CTEFL), which takes a mere five weeks to obtain.
Furthermore, Penabur does not have an international school per se. For that, they need approval from the country which sponsors it. In Jakarta, there are British, Japanese, French, German, Australian, New Zealand, Korean and Pakistani International Schools, and probably a few I've overlooked, whose staff may well have diplomatic passports.
It is largely irrelevant that Penabur has a licence from Cambridge University. This only gives permission to use a specific overseas curriculum. There are several good schools which have such a licence, but they are properly known as National Plus schools and to be acknowledged as such should meet the stringent criteria supervised and certified by the Association of National Plus Schools, as well as the overseas licence provider.
Unless Penabur has taken drastic steps in the past three years and grown substantially since establishing "international classes" which were embedded in and used the facilities of the already established schools in Tanjung Duren and Kelapa Gading, then they have no right to call themselves National Plus Schools, let alone label what they do as "International".
......................
*I say that I was pleasantly surprised only because it enhances my own case regarding the unfair dismissal of a colleague and I some three years ago. We won but are still awaiting the payout awarded by the Supreme Court.
Our lawyers have informed us that Penabur wish to continue their fight against us, even though there is no avenue for appeal, let alone grounds.
Whereas David Wongso is pursuing his case through police channels, we are considering a civil case as we have documentary evidence of visa and contract irregularities, tax avoidance, and intimidation of staff - both local and expatriate - as well as the financial deception of university students.
You would be hard-pressed to find any parents or staff connected with Penabur who do not have a measure of grievance.The few who don't are those whose charges win 'prestigious' prizes in various competitions and do well in the mechanical, knowledge-based multi-choice tests.
I doubt that he received much joy, but then his complaints were centred around the lack of qualifications of the staff and that he didn't get the 'service' he expected as, it appeared, the management were "arogan".
That is not unexpected as this thread amplifies.
Today, I was pleasantly surprised* to read the following article in the Jakarta Post.
Having spent thousands of dollars registering his 6-year-old son at BPK Penabur International School in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, in 2008, businessman David Wongso was expecting to see his son’s education handled by professionals, he says.
However, David began to question the school’s credibility over the next few months when he found extensive English grammatical errors in his son’s worksheets from the school.
“Initially I just thought it was typos, but when I saw similar mistakes happening again over the following days I realized there could be something wrong with the quality of the school’s teachers,” he said.
David was among three parents who reported the 60-year-old BPK Penabur institution last year to police for deception.
After registering his son at the institution’s newly opened international school, David said he had felt deceived at information presented in the school’s promotional leaflet and magazine advertisement.
According to the ad and pamphlet, the school held a license from Cambridge University to apply its international curriculum. While the school did employ several native-English-speaking teachers, the claim about the license was not true, he said.
“After we checked the school’s status with the Cambridge representative for the Asia-Pacific region, we were surprised to find that it hadn’t got their official license yet,” he said, adding that he and 17 parents of first-grader students had subsequently requested the school return their money.
David had spent a total of US$5,700 — comprising $3,000 for an entrance fee and $2,700 for 9 months’ tuition.
The request, however, was rejected, forcing most of the parents to keep their children enrolled at the school.
It was only David and three other parents who finally moved their children to another school in early 2009.
BPK Penabur chairman Robert Robianto, however, said it was impossible for the school to return the parents’ money because it was their decision to register their children at the school.
He also denied allegations that the school had no license to run a Cambridge-based curriculum, saying it had secured a license for their international school in Tanjung Duren, West Jakarta, in 2006.
“We also secured [a Cambridge] license for our international school in Kelapa Gading,” he told the Jakarta Post.
Hasyim Widhiarto, Jakarta Post
Three years ago, Ukrida Penabur Internasional, the programme employing expatriate teachers in Jakarta, there were but two qualified school teachers out of around 16 'teachers'. and not all even had the minimal qualification of a Certificate of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (CTEFL), which takes a mere five weeks to obtain.
Furthermore, Penabur does not have an international school per se. For that, they need approval from the country which sponsors it. In Jakarta, there are British, Japanese, French, German, Australian, New Zealand, Korean and Pakistani International Schools, and probably a few I've overlooked, whose staff may well have diplomatic passports.
It is largely irrelevant that Penabur has a licence from Cambridge University. This only gives permission to use a specific overseas curriculum. There are several good schools which have such a licence, but they are properly known as National Plus schools and to be acknowledged as such should meet the stringent criteria supervised and certified by the Association of National Plus Schools, as well as the overseas licence provider.
Unless Penabur has taken drastic steps in the past three years and grown substantially since establishing "international classes" which were embedded in and used the facilities of the already established schools in Tanjung Duren and Kelapa Gading, then they have no right to call themselves National Plus Schools, let alone label what they do as "International".
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*I say that I was pleasantly surprised only because it enhances my own case regarding the unfair dismissal of a colleague and I some three years ago. We won but are still awaiting the payout awarded by the Supreme Court.
Our lawyers have informed us that Penabur wish to continue their fight against us, even though there is no avenue for appeal, let alone grounds.
Whereas David Wongso is pursuing his case through police channels, we are considering a civil case as we have documentary evidence of visa and contract irregularities, tax avoidance, and intimidation of staff - both local and expatriate - as well as the financial deception of university students.
You would be hard-pressed to find any parents or staff connected with Penabur who do not have a measure of grievance.The few who don't are those whose charges win 'prestigious' prizes in various competitions and do well in the mechanical, knowledge-based multi-choice tests.
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