The PISA Report for 2018 has placed the Indonesian students among the lowest performers in Southeast Asia. The test is conducted by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, (OECD) globally every three years to measure basic math skills, knowledge of science and reading abilities of 15-year-old students.
Indonesian students’ inability to perform well in the global test has placed the country in the bottom 10 of PISA rankings. The report is indicative of Indonesia’s lack of quality education. It seems the country of 260 million needs to revamp and revolutionize its education system.
PISA conducted a student survey and collected feedback to understand the reason for Indonesia’s poor performance. In survey it was found that teachers in the country are not qualified enough to teach. The students told PISA committee that their teacher never provide enough feedback, the communication gap creates an unhealthy student-teacher dynamic which in-turn often leads to the young students feeling clueless.
Indonesian government, in the past has used teaching ability tests to keep a check on teachers’ performance in the field. The average score for the test conducted in 2015 was a mere 53%. The test has not been repeated since 2015.
The World Bank reported in 2017, that one in five teachers misses school almost every day in the country. Adding to the teachers lack of interest are the low wages.
Indonesia is complex country with multiple native languages and vast spread of land in form islands that implementing national education guidelines is a rather difficult. Another major reason for Indonesia’s not so effective system of education is the governments low-spending in the sector.
This does not suggest that all students in Indonesia are low-performers. The important point to note is that the country with such a complex mix of indigenous identities and a large youth population should focus on education for its own benefit and further growth.
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