This is excellent news!
Indonesia sent a rather accomplished team of secondary students to Zagreb, Croatia, to participate in the 41st Physics Olympiad. The team: Christian George Emor from North Sulawesi, David Giovanni from Tangerang, Banten, Kevin Soedyatmiko from Jakarta, Muhammad Sohibul Maromi from East Java, and Ahmad Ataka Awwalur Rizqi from Yogyakarta took the competition by storm and scooped four gold medals and a silver medal. Awesome effort considering there were 376 participants from 82 countries!
In a country that is knocking on the door of 250 million people the odds must be in favour of there being a good number of incredibly gifted people living in the midst of that burgeoning sprawl of humanity. This goes to show that some of them have been uncovered. However, perhaps with a functioning Department of Education, a comprehensive education policy, and proper funding Indonesia would be uncovering so much more talent from among its ranks. There is no reason, bar one, that Indonesia should not be at the forefront of all kinds of research and innovation; the incredibly inefficient government.
It is with sincere hope that these kinds of achievements encourage the government to commit more funding to education and training.
In the meantime, congratulations to the whole Indonesian team. You have done yourselves and your country proud.
Showing posts with label Department of Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Department of Education. Show all posts
26 July 2010
17 July 2010
Do Selective High Schools Have the Best Teachers?
Do Selective High Schools Have the Best Teachers?
I am going to go out on a limb here and say, No!
I went to a selective high school for some of my schooling and a non-selective high school for the rest of it. The idea that selective high schools have the best teachers is a myth. It is a myth that could be easily busted wide open. However, the data that could bust that myth is not released by the NSW Department of Education and Training. In an era of openness and transparency where parents prefer to make informed decisions about where they send their children to schools, then this data would help parents identify which schools have teachers making a significant difference in the educational lives of the students under their care.
The myth is premised on the idea that because it is a selective high school, then not only are the students selected but so are the teachers. This is clearly not the case. Even by the Department's own admission, schools can request, perhaps even demand, certain teachers with specific skills, but generally vacancies appear and they are filled. In any event, the competitive nature of a selective school drives successful outcomes for students more than extraordinary teachers.
That is not to say that extraordinary teachers do not exist in the selective school system, for they surely do, but this is to say that these schools are likely to achieve results with teachers going through the motions because the students themselves are driven to succeed.
The reality is that you are just as likely to come across an exceptional teacher working in Bingara or Moree or Deniliquin as you are at James Ruse or Sydney Boys or Hurlstone Agricultural High School. Similarly, you are just as likely to come across a teacher going through the motions of teaching in anyone of these schools or teachers who are struggling with the profession and their educational responsibilities.
As a prospective teacher I am committed to being successful. Success comes in many forms, but paramount among these is seeing the students that I work with achieve and exceed their learning expectations.
This little rant was inspired by this article.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say, No!
I went to a selective high school for some of my schooling and a non-selective high school for the rest of it. The idea that selective high schools have the best teachers is a myth. It is a myth that could be easily busted wide open. However, the data that could bust that myth is not released by the NSW Department of Education and Training. In an era of openness and transparency where parents prefer to make informed decisions about where they send their children to schools, then this data would help parents identify which schools have teachers making a significant difference in the educational lives of the students under their care.
The myth is premised on the idea that because it is a selective high school, then not only are the students selected but so are the teachers. This is clearly not the case. Even by the Department's own admission, schools can request, perhaps even demand, certain teachers with specific skills, but generally vacancies appear and they are filled. In any event, the competitive nature of a selective school drives successful outcomes for students more than extraordinary teachers.
That is not to say that extraordinary teachers do not exist in the selective school system, for they surely do, but this is to say that these schools are likely to achieve results with teachers going through the motions because the students themselves are driven to succeed.
The reality is that you are just as likely to come across an exceptional teacher working in Bingara or Moree or Deniliquin as you are at James Ruse or Sydney Boys or Hurlstone Agricultural High School. Similarly, you are just as likely to come across a teacher going through the motions of teaching in anyone of these schools or teachers who are struggling with the profession and their educational responsibilities.
As a prospective teacher I am committed to being successful. Success comes in many forms, but paramount among these is seeing the students that I work with achieve and exceed their learning expectations.
This little rant was inspired by this article.
11 July 2010
Building the Education Revolution Indonesian Style...
Education is the key to the future. This is a universal truth. However, you would be forgiven for thinking that most governments and people do not take the future seriously considering how little attention is paid to education or how little respect is given to teachers who are responsible for educating that future. Yet, it is governments and others that are quick out of the blocks to blame teachers and schools for perceived failures in educating that future based on arbitrary test scores and the like (the subject matter for another post perhaps).
Nevertheless, this post is about the educational policies of the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) government that sees it set to allocate some IDR 9.3 trillion to a program that is expected to repair and renovate some 132,000 classrooms at the elementary school level and build new classrooms in more remote areas of the archipelago. What is amazing is that this is the allocation for 2010-2011 and is the best part of the IDR 14 trillion that is supposedly set aside for the renovating and building program.
According to the Department of Education, the building component of the program is focusing on kindergarten facilities that are to be integrated into elementary schools and the building of new junior high schools so that Indonesian children have access to educational facilities that are no more that 2 kilometres from their homes. The idea of no student having to travel more than two kilometres to school is an admirable one, but one fraught with difficulties considering the reality of remoteness that many students will find themselves in outside of the more densely populated islands of Java and Sumatra.
The budget allocation and the plan is a good one. Perhaps once the renovating and building program is complete, the government can then direct some much-needed policy attention to ensuring that there are sufficient teachers available to staff the schools that exist. Then perhaps a little bit of time can be devoted to professional development of teachers to ensure that teachers are always at the cutting edge of teaching pedagogies and technology. After all, it is these teachers who we are tasking with the shaping of our collective futures. Finally, perhaps the government can spend a little (no pun intended) on teacher salaries. Not just thinking about salaries, but actually doing something to see those salaries increase and reflect the level of trust that we as a community put in teachers to educate our children.
Hopefully, governments and the powers that be around the world can dedicate their collective energies to making 2011 the start of a global educational revolution, one aimed at building our future together.
According to the Department of Education, the building component of the program is focusing on kindergarten facilities that are to be integrated into elementary schools and the building of new junior high schools so that Indonesian children have access to educational facilities that are no more that 2 kilometres from their homes. The idea of no student having to travel more than two kilometres to school is an admirable one, but one fraught with difficulties considering the reality of remoteness that many students will find themselves in outside of the more densely populated islands of Java and Sumatra.
The budget allocation and the plan is a good one. Perhaps once the renovating and building program is complete, the government can then direct some much-needed policy attention to ensuring that there are sufficient teachers available to staff the schools that exist. Then perhaps a little bit of time can be devoted to professional development of teachers to ensure that teachers are always at the cutting edge of teaching pedagogies and technology. After all, it is these teachers who we are tasking with the shaping of our collective futures. Finally, perhaps the government can spend a little (no pun intended) on teacher salaries. Not just thinking about salaries, but actually doing something to see those salaries increase and reflect the level of trust that we as a community put in teachers to educate our children.
Hopefully, governments and the powers that be around the world can dedicate their collective energies to making 2011 the start of a global educational revolution, one aimed at building our future together.
05 July 2010
Bingara -- Beyond the Line...
The Beyond the Line program is a program run by the Department of Education and Training in New South Wales. The program is designed to encourage new teachers to take the plunge in a rural and / or remote school.
For me, there is not a lot of choice. I am on a Beyond the Line scholarship, so I am destined to go teaching in a rural or remote school.
Adios!
29 July 2009
Internet Filters and Pornography...
Not everything is as easy as installing a filter, this includes blocking pornography on the internet. The New South Wales Department of Education has installed filters on school computers presumably to ensure that students, and teachers, do not have the ability to access porn and to ensure that their time is productive in accessing appropriate academic and education-related sites.
Oops!
The filter has some problems. This is highlighted in the case of a Year 10 student who typed in the search term "swallow". Yes, I know, you can see where this is going already. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, for this particular Year 10 student, the sites that came up had nothing to do with a little bird but rather some hard core porn that dealt not with the little swallow but with a whole different set of swallow circumstances.
But, turning this into a farce is that harmless sites like the Minister of Education, Verity Firth's, own web page is blocked by the filter.
This is the problem with filters. They are not discriminating enough and too discriminating all in the same algorithm. It is perhaps better to err on the side of caution and block web pages and sites that are harmless if the filter could ensure that it was doing the job it was supposed to and filtering out all the harmful web pages and sites. However, this example clearly shows that the filters are not up to that task.
The reality is that even the constant updating of lists is of limited use. Pornographers are smart enough, and technologically savvy enough, to up and move their material to a new web page address and avoid the filter. Web / internet users are also generally sufficiently technologically savvy to be able to follow along with the pornographers, if they are so inclined to do so.
There must be a better way to ensure that access is restricted in a manner that prevents the access to pornography while maintaining access to the sites required by school-aged children.
This begs the question are the filters a worthwhile investment or a waste of time?
It would seem that at this present time filters are not working and it is time to invest in finding a better and more effective alternative.
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