Mathematics Education in Indonesia
Anna Saputera

---

Introduction

Since its 1945 independence, Indonesia has been struggling to find and strengthen its identity as a nation and to ensure welfare for the people of Indonesia. Yet the dream is still too far to be reached. There are many problems that cause it; one of the biggest problems is its corrupt education system. The unscrupulous politicians have not put serious efforts to push education reform in the nation’s main agenda, unlike Indonesia’s neighboring countries: Malaysia and Singapore, whose governments put so much effort in their pursuit for education betterment and set aside large chunk of budget; thus by now far ahead in their education system. The recent trend of Indonesian education is encouraging highly talented students to participate in International Competition. Every year Indonesian high school students show their achievement in the International Mathematics/Physics Olympiad. As in year 2004, Indonesia ranked 54th from 85 participating countries (ahead of New Zealand, Malaysia and Philippines) in IMO. In the 37th Physics Olympiad (IPHO 2006), Indonesia collected 4 gold medals. While the result serves as nation’s pride and achievement, this result should not be mistakenly interpreted as overall quality of Indonesian poor education system nor should it become the overall goal of Indonesian education.

The world is entering the globalization era. Space and time are becoming negligible. Countries’ borders are disappearing. Though the advantage and disadvantage of globalization is a debatable topic, globalization itself is inevitable. Glancing at its current manpower, Indonesia would not be able to compete with the neighboring countries. According to Indonesian Ministry of Education website , large numbers of students drop out before finishing elementary schools. The number of students graduating from elementary schools in 2003-2004 was 3,616,414 students, which was 1.6% of Indonesian total population of 219,883,000 people. This implies that students who dropped out from elementary schools would not get a chance to understand basic computation skills such as: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division taught in elementary schools. Such basic mathematics knowledge is crucial for an individual’s development and hence nation’s development. Unfortunately, these least privileged students will pay the biggest price and suffer biggest losses later on. The skills and knowledge students learn in elementary and secondary schools are very much correlated with success later in life, which ultimately predicts a nation’s future development.

The Importance of Strong Mathematical Programs

If we observe our surroundings: both nature and man-made, is there anything untouched by mathematics? Birds flying on the sky, running dog, snow pattern, computers, air conditioners, food recipe, apartment buildings, clothes, stoves, weather forecast, children theme park, eye-glasses, human body and infinitely many others. The list presents because of the existence of mathematics from the simplest to the most convoluted concepts. Ian Stewart in Letters to a Young Mathematician explains exactly the points . Mathematics has been subtly integrated to our daily lives that we barely could even notice. Mathematics and all its applications are inevitable; it is one of humans’ basic needs. Human beings from the most uncivilized to the most erudite will have to relate to mathematics in various degrees.

The mind is composed of various faculties, such as the powers of memory, reasoning, observation, and will. These faculties could be strengthened by mental exercise, much as muscles could be strengthened by physical exercises. Mathematics was claimed to be crucial for promoting certain key mental faculties and needed for the work further on. People who have not done mathematics for a long time might not remember the exact formulas and substance being taught, however, the methods of thought, the attitude of mind and the mode of approach in problem solving remain precious . Hence, mathematics is the foundation of other branches of discipline and the main requirement of the advancement of scientific research and engineering, which has been known to be a bargaining power for a country. Countries with strong mathematical programs tend to be more advanced in their scientific research. Examples could be seen from countries like China, Singapore, South Korea and India, which has strong K-12 mathematics program. According to TIMSS 1999 , among 8th graders, Singapore ranked 1st in the math standardized test; followed by Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Thus it can not be denied that Indonesia in overall needs to reform its education system, to make sure that every child gets the opportunity to enter and finish elementary and secondary schools, where basic mathematical skills are given.

Approaching Mathematics: Through Excitement or Discipline?

In many countries including Indonesia, mathematics is taught in an uninteresting and boring manner. Though there are exceptional teachers whose love to the subject are obvious and thus affecting the students. The teaching method is often rushed just to catch up with the national curriculum that merely focuses on the breadth instead of depth of the topics coverage. Many essential topics are only briefly covered. Teachers give the formulas and problems to practice without explaining where the formulas came from and what the applications of the concepts are, making the learning process uninteresting. Students do not get to taste the beauty of the problem solving process. They leave the classroom with “know-how” skills but not a “know-why” understanding.

There are two problems from the aforementioned condition: first, national mathematics curriculum needs to be revised such that students have enough time to digest materials and mathematics standardized tests need to be adjusted such that students with solid understandings of mathematical concepts would be rewarded, instead of letting students get by mathematics tests easily with little or no proper understanding. Second, most teachers convey the idea of “mathematics” as boring, impractical and frightening. Those teachers who teach in such ways might be those who fear mathematics themselves and therefore pass on their fear to the students. Lack of proper understanding of what mathematics is all about could be the main cause of the bad teaching method and math fear.

There are at least three ways in approaching mathematics: through discipline, excitement and a combination of both. Most of people would agree that a combination of both will be the best way in approaching mathematics. However it is easier said than done, most mathematics curriculum and teaching methods in many countries lean to either one of those; it is always a challenge to find a balance between the two.

It is true that in the earlier stage, students who are taught mathematics in a rigorous problem-solving way tend to do better than those who are taught in a more conceptual and creative way. A survey done by Brookings Institution's Brown Center on Education Policy shows countries whose students said they were confident in their mathematics ability and were taught to believe that “mathematics is fun”, performed poorer in comparison to countries whose students said they were not so confident in mathematics and were taught in rigorous mathematical manner . While learning mathematics requires a discipline and high commitment in practicing problems, one should never think of mathematics as a field with sets of rules to be applied and memorized. Doing mathematics requires a highly creative mind and hence those students who are not taught this way would have a difficulty later in university and research-level works which demand high creativity. On the other extreme, if mathematics is done merely for the fun of it, commitment and discipline tend to get neglected. Younger students would then undermine the importance of possessing quick mind, strong computational ability and advanced problem-solving techniques. This in the end leads to lack of skills and tools for problem solving, and ultimately inability to understand more advanced topics.

We need a balanced mathematics curriculum which consists of rigorousness and creativity. Educators need to cultivate the love of mathematics in children and teenagers besides all the mathematical routines and exercises. The goal in mind is to make mathematics a discipline that they can enjoy and apply in their daily lives. Once students get attracted to mathematics and its applications, practicing rigorous mathematical problems will not be a big burden. Integrating mathematics curriculum to other disciplines may spark the interest of students. As an example, some schools in America are combining arts and mathematics by using the work of sculpture artist Alexander Calder , which applied the theories of Algebra into his art projects. These schools use his artwork to teach Algebra concept through hands-on activity in classrooms. Another example, children books - like those written by Greg Tang - utilize attractive illustrations to explain mathematical concepts to children . These books attract kids by using objects kids would like – acorns, snowflakes, bugs and sea shells – instead of mere dots. The writer’s goal is to improve computational skills and at the same time training children to become good problem solvers. On the more advanced side of mathematics, Alyson Shotz, whose main interest is art, environmental issues and topologies (branch of mathematics), use scientific ideas and theories as points of departure for explorations of material, shape and the process of observation . Her work is on display in many museums and exhibitions in many countries.

The government needs a tremendous amount of effort and focus in order to improve overall quality of mathematics education in Indonesia. Besides curriculum reform, government needs to invest in developing high-quality library, science museums and encouraging projects which combine mathematics and its applications.

Conclusion

Indonesia needs to strengthen its mathematics foundation in order to compete with the neighboring countries in the globalization era. Mathematics is the most basic requirements for a country’s development and hence it is crucial for government to put bigger efforts in developing good and solid mathematics curriculums. While there are many ways to reform its math curriculum, it is essential to emphasize that approaching mathematics must be done through exercising discipline and sparking interest from a child. A discipline without excitement could only keep one survives for a short period of time. While an excitement without discipline could only produce a shallow thinker. If only both discipline and excitement are combined, the result will be incredible.

Anna Saputera obtained her M.S. in Computer Science from Purdue University. She is currently pursuing a degree in Mathematics from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Back to top