Special Initiatives in Mathematics and Science Education
The Indonesian government has developed a special program in collaboration with other South-east Asian countries to support mathematics and science education . Initiated by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO), the program is managed by the regional center for Quality Improvement of Teacher and Education Personnel (QITEP). There are three QITEP branches in science, mathematics, and language arts.
The main goals of SEAMEO QITEP in Science are to assist member states in developing and implementing effective, inquiry-based science education programs and events; strengthening national and international networking in science education; conducting research-based innovations and resource sharing in science education; and improving the competence and management capabilities of QITEP in Science human resources for effective and efficient service delivery. One key focus of the center is the development of thinking skills through Inquiry-based Science Education (IBSE) to support education serving sustainable development.
The SEAMEO Center for QITEP in Mathematics is expected to achieve four major goals as follows:
- Cater to the needs of mathematics teachers and education personnel in the region, thereby improving education quality
- Promote ongoing professional development for teachers and education personnel in the area of mathematics education
- Establish extensive networks, information exchange, and best practice sharing in the area of mathematics education among SEAMEO member countries
- Provide intellectual forums on mathematics education innovation
SEAMEO QITEP believes that producing quality science and mathematics teachers who are able to improve student learning outcomes will contribute greatly to regional growth and development and to the success of the ASEAN community. For further information, please visit http://www.qitepscience.org/ and http://www.qitepinmath.org.
To provide better and wider information access for students, the Indonesian government has launched the Gerakan Literasi Sekolah initiative to build a national reading culture, beginning with the school environment. Several programs support this initiative, including:
- Sustained silent reading—Through this program, time is allocated for students to read individually before class begins every morning
- School library empowerment—This program helps school libraries to expand their collections with good resources and improve their service to students, and aims to attract students to engage with libraries so that they may learn to value the importance of libraries for learning
- Library network—In order to provide wider and better access to books and journals Indonesia is working to link the national library and school libraries through the Internet
In order to encourage students to pursue careers in mathematics, science, and technology, the government offers scholarships for students applying to major in these subjects. This initiative is supported not only by government funding but also by private sector and nongovernmental organization (NGO) funding. Many private sector entities and NGOs offer scholarships giving priority to or allocating a larger portion of funding for mathematics, science, and technology majors.