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Too Much Study May Be Bad for Indonesia's Kids, Experts Say
Dessy Sagita & Antara | December 13, 2010

Primary school students in Solo, Central Java. With the quality of education well below international standards and national production centered mainly on commodities, it is still too early to conclude that Indonesia is moving forward.  (Antara Photo) Primary school students in Solo, Central Java. With the quality of education well below international standards and national production centered mainly on commodities, it is still too early to conclude that Indonesia is moving forward.  (Antara Photo)
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pakGuru
11:54am Dec 16, 2010

@londoedan:

actually, research is showing gaming, in moderate amounts, does help students develop analytical skills and improve hand-eye coordination.

involvement in online communities, such as facebook, allows the introvert to have an avenue to communicate and express themselves.

the local tv programming are a joke but there are some very good channels on cablevision for children babytv, disney - unfortunately not accessible to many indonesians. teaching through cartoons and puppets is does work. again with proper supervision.

but thats the problem. with the availability of nannies and pembantus, children are spending more time with people being paid to watch over them, rather than the ones who brought them to life.

yes, there are working couples. but even then, the weekend is for hanging out with colleagues rather than catching up with the family

pakGuru
11:52am Dec 16, 2010

@londoedan:

actually, research is showing gaming, in moderate amounts, does help students develop analytical skills and improve hand-eye coordination.

involvement in online communities, such as facebook, allows the introvert to have an avenue to communicate and express themselves.

the local tv programming are a joke but there are some very good channels on cablevision for children babytv, disney - unfortunately not accessible to many indonesians. teaching through cartoons and puppets is does work. again with proper supervision.

but thats the problem. with the availability of nannies and pembantus, children are spending more time with people being paid to watch over them, rather than the ones who brought them to life.

yes, there are working couples. but even then, the weekend is for hanging out with colleagues rather than catching up with the family

isahbiazhar
3:29pm Dec 15, 2010

We should encourage home schooling and allow students to take government exams till they get the minimum grade.There should not be any force in learning.If places are not available we should start more distant education through the internet where quality education is provided such as by MIT of USA.We wshould not worry about paper qualification.We can even train doctors and scientists without paper qualification.In this way everybody knows that education will not be a stress and the nnation will benefit with more capable leaders.Just get rid of the so called DEGREES.

londoedan
3:09pm Dec 15, 2010

Indeed - they should spend more time playing useless TV Games, keeping in touch with their friends on Facebook, spending their parent's money at expensive malls, and eating junk food at McDonald's.

pakGuru
2:34pm Dec 14, 2010

@nprick

well, getting shafted by the government during childhood is one way of preparing for getting shafted by the government as an adult....

so in that sense, the government is doing a superb job.

as in any field, there will always be losers who couldnt get a job elsewhere and these are the ones who give the profession a bad name. but the rest, they are usually passionate about teaching. i know some teachers who have been teaching in the same school for longer than i have been alive. and they are still as passionate as when they started. how many of us can say that about our jobs? these are the true heroes of the country. sorry obama's mama.

but as has become obvious, the government does not have educating the people to lift them out of the mire of poverty and ignorance as any of its priorities.

Jakarta. A packed school curriculum and excessive homework could cause depression among students and constitute a violation of children’s rights, a noted psychologist said on Monday.

Seto Mulyadi, a child psychologist and chief adviser to the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak), told Antara news agency that the local curriculum has overloaded students with work.

Monotonous teaching methods have also frustrated the children.

He said too much academic pressure could push students to start smoking, engage in brawls or even contemplate suicide.

He said education authorities should rethink the curriculum.

Darmaningtyas, an education expert, said part of the problem is that students are overburdened with subjects they do not need to lea rn at their age.

“Why would you teach a fourth-grader about globalization?” he asked.

“They should be learning about Indonesian islands and the things happening in their surroundings.”

He said the National Education Ministry was being too ambitious in trying to teach all kinds of subjects to students at once.

“Honestly, teaching anthropology at elementary school level is too much,” he said.

Darmaningtyas also said parents were partly to blame for the pressure their kids experience.

He said that due to the parents’ obsession to get their children into the best schools, they tend to forget that kids need time to play and explore their surroundings — things that could help them be creative and develop a sense of social and cultural issues.

“Children need to play, they need to be in touch with their emotional side,” he said.

“Schools shouldn’t only be about academic achievements.”

Seto said one option is to withdraw children from formal classes and put them in home school, which could have a more relaxed and fun environment.

However, Darmaningtyas said that home schooling would restrict the children’s access to new friends and a viable social life.

He called on parents whose children were suffering from an excess of lessons and homework to move them to a school with a lighter workload.

“It’s okay if your kid isn’t as good as the other kids in science,” he said.

“They can make up for this by excelling in culture or the arts. That’s better rather than allowing them to get depressed.”

But Hermana Somantri, from the National Education Ministry’s Center for Curricula, denied the current curriculum is overwhelming to students.

“We’ve put lots of consideration into drafting this curriculum and there was no intention at all to place unnecessary burden on the kids,” he said.

He added children have to get used to working hard in order to catch up with those from developed countries such as the United States, Japan and South Korea.

“We shouldn’t spoil our children, otherwise they won’t be able to compete and survive in the future,” Hermana said.

He also said children often ended up with too much homework because their teachers failed to properly manage the subjects at school.