'While winning medals is nice, RI should prepare for Nobel Prize'

Jakarta, NU Online
While applauding Indonesian students for their success at international science competitions, a lawmaker says much work remains to improve the country's education sector.

"While we should appreciate these students, we should also start looking forward and planning to win our first Nobel Prize," legislator Ferdiansyah from the House of Representatives' education commission told The Jakarta Post.<>

"Surely we cannot do this overnight but this is important because the Nobel Prize in the sciences is usually given for inventions or discoveries."

Ferdiansyah was commenting on the recent successes of Indonesian students at two science events.

Indonesian students won one gold medal, three silver medals and a bronze medal at the 38th International Physics Olympics at Isfahan, Iran, on July 13-22.

Indonesia failed to win the absolute winner title with the highest point sas it did last year in Singapore, where it collected four gold medals and a silver medal.

This year's absolute winner was Choi Young-joon from South Korea with 48.8 points.

In Saskatoon, Canada, Indonesian students won one gold medal, one silver and one bronze medal at the 18th International Biology Olympics.

Ferdiansyah said the government should allow these students to accept scholarship offers from overseas, especially because the government was not able to guarantee them a world-class education.

"But we should remind these students to remember their cultural roots because somehow the state played some role in their success," he said.

"I am just curious why our own universities do not offer them scholarships before foreign universities do."

He also said that if the students did go abroad to study, the Education Ministry should continue to monitor their progress.

Ferdiansyah said a more flexible educational curriculum that focused on analytical and logical thinking skills would produce more students ready to compete against their peers from around the world.

"It is already a good start by allowing schools to set their own curricula. But is it flexible enough?"

"We need to allow students to enjoy the education process and to stimulate their curiosity so they want to learn more about different subjects." (dar)