School principals to train overseas

Nusa Dua, NU Online
The government will send school principals from elementary to senior high school levels to Malaysia and Singapore to broaden their horizons and help improve education standards in Indonesia, the education minister said.

"Besides learning English, they will be trained in entrepreneurial skills," said National Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo, on the sidelines of the SEAMEO (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization) seminar in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Thursday.<>

He added that a school principal's role would no longer be confined to being just a teacher, but also a leader, manager and entrepreneur.

Bambang acknowledged Indonesian school principals still had limited skills. However, he said "some of them have progressed as leaders naturally."

Indonesia is ranked fourth in the ASEAN region for education standards after Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

However, in certain fields, notably arts and culture, Indonesia ranked very well, said Bambang. SEAMEO-member countries have also agreed to send their students to learn in Indonesia.

According to Bambang, Singapore had excelled in developing its technical and language schools. He said Singapore's Information and Communications Technology (ICT) network was more advanced than in Indonesia.

However, Bambang said Singapore still lacked experience in implementing long distance, or correspondence education. "Indonesia still surpasses Singapore in this area, but Malaysia far outshines us. We must learn this from Malaysia."

"Indonesia is making strenuous efforts to catch up with other countries in the field of education. Besides reforming the education curriculum, we will immediately implement the law on teachers and lecturers and launch the National Education ICT as a significant step to improving education. The government is now also restoring school buildings across the country," he said.

Bambang will also focus on improving the image of technical high schools, which are shunned by most students in favor of regular schools.

Bambang said he was also committed to providing all schools with computer labs. He said that 70 percent of technical schools had been equipped with computer labs, while only 20 percent of senior high schools and 19 percent of junior high schools were equipped with such labs so far. "We hope to get approval from the House of Representatives soon so we can fill the deficit and expedite our ICT network," said Bambang. (tjp/dar)