Peringkat Ke-65, Salah Siapa???

Indonesia is a developing country whose  total of population  about 241 million people and has a wide area from Sabang to Marauke. Many  things must be done and repaired by Indonesia in order to catch up with developed countries. Especially  is improvement of education sector. Why should education? This is because education is only one for the intellectual life of nation. Progress of a nation was determined by education. Through education quality of Indonesian human can be increase. If quality of human be increase, so life of nation increased too.

One of education that should be noted is mathematics education. Mathematics is Queen of Sciences, the tools of sciences and a science that is widely applied in everyday life Mathematics is a basic science that must be learned by a child except. Furthermore, through mathematics many characters that we can instill in society, especially for the generation of nation. But an understanding of mathematic in Indonesia still low. This was seen from quality of mathematics education based on PISA
(Programme of International Student Assessment) in 2009, Indonesia is at position 61 of 65 countries. PISA is held every 3 years commencing from the year 2000  that included students 15 years old from 65 countries, developed countries and developing countries. Who can blame when Indonesia was only grade 61 of 65 when was showed the data of PISA on 7 December 2010 (http://www.pisa.oecd.org). Actually, we can not  blame  anyone because education is responsibility of all.  Former president Soeharto has also been confirmed that during delivered a speech on KTT tahun 1993 in India.

If you're honest, then it must be very many among us who are not aware of this condition. Very sad when educators and prospective teachers of mathematics is not at all know this condition even never thinking about it. Is not there a sense of envy in the condition of education in China that is so good that gained the first position in the assessment of reading, mathematics, and sciences ability. This fact should be our common concern to improve it. Not only a dream to sleep if we want to raise the position of Indonesia in various aspects of education, especially math, but this is our common goal to make it happen too.

Formal mathematics education is often saturating students. Mathematics was beginning to be felt as a disaster by students. According Mutrofin (2009:51) "The subject of mathematics was beginning to be felt as a disaster since in 1970.  At school students are sometimes required to be able to understand mathematics merely to pass the National Exam. Mathematics teachers were more likely to choose the method of discourse in the pursuit of appropriate curriculum materials. This is due to the mathematical material is so much and fear they will be limited time. Moreover  the bad image that has been attached to a mathematics teacher make a student scared to math too. Such conditions make the students finally began to hate math and never know the usefulness of mathematics as the queen of science and as tools of sciences.

We must realize the purpose of mathematics education not only to achieve the learning outcomes above the average but also to make students understand the usefulness of mathematics so that they can apply it in everyday life. Achievement of this goal can not be imposed only to the school because of the fact that a student is doing a lot of activities outside of school. This makes needed  of support of all elements, such as government, society, educators, and parents. Role that be given is very influence achieved or not this goal. With the support of all elements is expected our goals of education can be achieved in the future time.

University students as agents of change also give a role in improving the quality of education. In improvements the quality of mathematics education that is taking the role of the student FKIP Mathematics. Why?. This is due to math education students are educated with the exact science of mathematics and science education that is theoretical and applied. They are given capital to be a professional teacher of mathematics. However, all that will be in vain if they do not understand the meaning of being a "math teacher". Being a math teacher means to like mathematics. If they do not like and understand the usefulness of mathematics, then how can they make the students like and understand the usefulness of mathematics. A teacher not only in transferring his knowledge but also how students can like, understand, and apply knowledge that he gave. For that, let’s together prepare that is needed to be a mathematics teacher who can achieve the actually goal of mathematics education.