The School System in
Indonesia and Australia
The education system in Indonesia consists of six years of elementary or grade school, three years of junior high school, three years of senior high school, and several more years of university or other higher education. Some kids also have one or two years in kindergarten before they start elementary school, but this is not compulsory.
In Australia, it is generally one year of kindergarten, then the next seven years are spent studying in elementary school, or what they call primary school. Finally they study for six years at high school. After graduating, they also have various options of further education.
Schools in Indonesia, except kindergarten, usually start at 7 a.m. and finish at about 1:30 p.m. with two breaks at around 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. which last for 15 minutes each. However, in Australia, they start at 8:40 a.m. and finish around 3.00 p.m. with two breaks. At about 10:30 a.m. the break lasts 20 minutes, and at 12:30 p.m. the students have at 45-minutes-break for lunch. Saturday and Sunday are holidays.
In Australia the second and the third year high school students are allowed to choose their own subjects instead of taking twelve or thirteen compulsory subjects like Indonesian students have to do. Australian high school students only have five or six subjects that they want to learn and stick to them.
In Indonesia, students in their third year of senior high school also have freedom to choose science programme, social studies, or language programme. However, our choice of subjects are yet not as definite as what Australian students have because we still have subjects outside of our choice of programme.
On the other hand, in Australia, the subjects are chosen purely in interest of the career paths they wish to take. If a students wants to be a doctor, for instance, the classes that he is required to take are Biology, Chemistry, Maths and English. He doesn't have to take social studies or language classes. In the way it is good because the students would know much more about the field.
In Indonesia forty to fifty students have a class of their own and the teacher come to the class every hour-change according to the time able. However, in Australia, the teacher has his own classroom, so the students have to move from one to another every hour. In Australia the common number of students in one class is twenty five. Class time itself on average is forty five minutes per lesson as it is in Indonesia.
In University, there is much more freedom since students only take the classes that they want to take. University students don't have to sit down in a class for six or seven straight hours. Instead, they only have to go to the classes they take. Basically, studying in university is about the ability to learn by yourself. The library is an important aspect for university students, and so is the group study.
- What is your opinion about the ideal number of students in a class for kindergarten, grade school, and high school?
- What do you think about the advantages and disadvantages of taking many subjects for Indonesin high school students?
- Why are the library and group study important for university students?
- What is the difference between Indonesian teacher and Australian teacher
What do the following italicized words refer to?
- Before they start elementary school...(paragraph 1)
- However, in Australia, they start at...(paragraph 3)
- ...he is required to take... (paragraph 6)
- ...his own classroom...(paragraph 7)
- ...they only have to go...(paragraph 8)
