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Letter: Are Indonesian workers stupid?
A few years ago I learned an amazing lesson from the head ofmathematics and his senior colleagues at an elite boarding school Iwas teaching in
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A
few years ago I learned an amazing lesson from the head ofmathematics and his senior colleagues at an elite boarding school Iwas teaching in. They were reviewing the results of a scholarshipexamination and decided unanimously to award the scholarship to a youngVietnamese refugee who not only received the lowest mark but ailed theexam. I could not understand their rationale. The head explained, “Weare offering him the scholarship because he is brilliant. We can tellthat from the mistakes he made, he has simply been taught badly.” Andthey were proved right. The boy came to the school and excelled.
I do voluntary teaching at the local junior secondary high school. Apart from the infectious good humor of these kids some other outstanding traits I have discovered are that they cannot think independently or outside the box. They are almost uniformly conditioned by rote learning and poor teaching practices that they are initially hesitant when asked a question and expected to provide an answer; reluctant when asked to come up and work out something on the blackboard; traumatized when asked to give an opinion; confused when I expect them to think for themselves, and baffled when I tell them that there is no shame if you make a mistakes and that there is nothing wrong if you don’t know the answer. They look at me curiously when I insist that cheating is totally unacceptable even though cheating is simply taken for granted as far as I can see.
Through persistence I have witnessed progress in many of them and most eagerly get involved in the learning process instead of sitting there like empty vessels, mechanically digesting material that is rammed down their throats. “Sit down! Shut up! Don’t think! And write this down!” is what they have been used to: Very one-sided, ineffectual educational practices. By the time they reach junior high school the damage has been done. That attitude, common place in many Indonesian schools, simply won’t equip these kids for further study or an efficient and productive time in the workforce.
Are Indonesians stupid?
Certainly not, in fact some may well be brilliant and most, I suspect,
are highly intelligent. It is just that many have been badly taught and
haven’t learned or been given opportunities to think beyond the
basics. Until attitudes and practices change in the schools across
this country, many things will remain the same in Indonesia such
as shoddy work practices and dull classes resulting in houses that fall
down and a badly educated society. This could be such a clever country.
Phillip Turnbull
BSD City
