•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

Indonesia needs to emphasize creativity in its school system, a senior Education Ministry official said, adding that it produces one-eighth the number of innovative scientific projects that neighboring Malaysia does.

Joko Santoso, director general for higher education at the ministry, said that this year even leading universities like the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) had only produced 400 projects.

“We are still far behind. Malaysia produces thousands of research projects a year,” he said at the Unesco Asia Pacific Program of Educational Innovation for Development International Conference on Tuesday.

“We still have many challenges in terms of creativity. We often talk about innovation without real action toward that goal. That has to change.”

Educational expert Arief Rachman said Indonesian teachers were “authoritarian” and focused more on following the school’s curriculum rather than facilitating a student’s desire to learn.

“Indonesia is still ‘teacher-centric’ and not ‘student-centric,’” he told the conference.

Arief highlighted the success of Indonesian kindergarten in encouraging students’ creativity by listening to their needs.
 
“As educators, they need to be able to develop a balance between formal education and creativity,” he said.

“From top to bottom, education is about theory and practice, but in the Indonesian education system there still needs to be synergy from the two sides.

“The business world is all about practice and no theory. Meanwhile, at universities its the other way around. We must close this gap between theory and practice.”

Hubert Gijzen, a Unesco representative in Jakarta, said a focus on entrepreneurship was key for the education system.

“Right now, we are facing rapid changes, particularly in supporting sustainable development,” he said, adding that creativity and entrepreneurship were needed from Indonesia’s future generations to cope with those changes.

“This challenge must be dealt with aggressively. With entrepreneurship, we are not only providing stability in development but also opportunity.”  

Gijzen said developing a student’s creativity must start at an early stage. “Progress in development must be aligned with progress in education,” he said.

More than 400 academics and educators from 20 countries around the world participated in the conference, which will last until Thursday, taking Inspiring Education as its main theme.

“The conference is a forum to explore the need for creativity and entrepreneurship,” Gijzen said, “which will eventually inspire future generations to innovate and dare to take the initiative so they can be productive and socially responsible citizens.”