THE Indonesian education system is not normally associated with academic prowess. Instead, the country is probably better known for its ramshackle schools, unqualified teachers, and deeply flawed national examination system. And yet, secondary school students plucked from educational institutions across the country regularly win gold medals at international physics, mathematics and science competitions.

 At the Asian Physics Olympiad held in India in May this year, for example, the Indonesian team took home two gold, one silver and two bronze medals. But this was nothing compared to Indonesia’s performance at the International Physics Olympiad held at the Nanyang Technological University in 2006. That year, Indonesia beat 84 countries to become the overall global champion. 

The two-day competition involves solving both theoretical and experimental problems, with participants from each country entering as individuals. Under the rules, gold medals are awarded to the top 8 per cent of participants. Silver medals are given to the remainder in the upper 25th percentile. Others who score in the top 50 per cent are awarded bronze medals.

The credit for Indonesia’s remarkable achievement is generally ascribed to 49-year-old Yohannes Surya. A graduate in physics from the University of Indonesia, he also holds a doctorate from the William & Mary College in Virginia, United States. Interviewed last month, Mr Surya explained that it all began when his college hosted the 1993 physics olympiad. “I asked friends in the University of Indonesia to help identify promising secondary school students, and we invited five of them to participate,” he told me. Coached intensively for two months ahead of the competition, one of the Indonesians came home with a bronze medal.

Mr Surya was hooked. In 1994, this soft-spoken physicist gave up a well-paying job at the Thomas Jefferson nuclear physics laboratory to return to Indonesia and prepare local students for international competitions. In subsequent years, Mr Surya worked with the Education Ministry as well as the nation’s private schools to select talented students to participate in international physics olympiads in Australia and elsewhere.

Close associates say that as an ethnic Chinese Christian, Mr Surya faced difficulty at first raising the necessary finance. But from 1996, he was helped by former finance minister Radius Prawiro, who allowed Mr Surya to use his villa to accommodate the students being coached.

In 1999, a Balinese student won a gold medal at the physics olympiad, helping to dispel rumours that Mr Surya was favouring ethnic Chinese. By then, training sessions had been extended to one year, and corporate sponsors such as oil giant Pertamina were also beginning to show interest.

Together with the Surya Institute, which he founded in 2006, Mr Surya has also worked to improve the quality of local mathematics, science and physics teaching. A teachers’ college has been founded in Tangerang, about 25km west of Jakarta, and Surya University will open its doors in the same area next year, thanks to support from a local property developer.

The process of coaching local students, Mr Surya told me, has made him acutely aware of numerous weaknesses in the way Indonesian students are taught. In a country where even physical education teachers are expected to teach mathematics and science subjects, the discovery was not unexpected.

But the extent of teacher ignorance was shocking nonetheless. One pre-test for science teachers attending a five-day in-service training course revealed that many believed that the Earth rotated on its axis as a result of the power of the Sun.

Mr Surya has written several textbooks for Indonesian primary and secondary schools, all of which emphasise teaching methods that focus on basic concepts rather than memorising formulas. “We teach in a fun and enjoyable way,” he explained.

The physicist appeared reluctant to criticise Indonesia’s education authorities when I spoke to him at a hotel in Tangerang early last month. The second Asian Science and Mathematics Olympiad for primary school students was in progress, and Mr Surya preferred to talk about what his students had achieved.

But the fact that many of the largest in-service training courses run by the Surya Institute have been funded by the private sector or the Ministry of State Enterprises rather than the Ministry of Education seems strange. Feedback from participants, close associates noted, was that similar courses organised by the education authorities tended to be boring, and focus on administration or class management rather than on course content.

Mr Surya has proven just how capable Indonesian students can be when given the opportunity. But there is a limit to what he and his small band of dedicated educationalists can do. About 29 per cent of Indonesia’s 240 million population is under the age of 14. Hopefully, this resource will not be squandered by a national leadership that fails to catch the vision.

(C) Singapore Press Holdings Limited