Choose leaders committed to education<\/p>\n
Ardimas Sasdi, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post, Berkeley, California<\/p>\n
ajambak@calmail.berkeley.edu<\/p>\n
Recent reports that 30 percent of about 149,000 public
\nelementary school buildings in urban and rural areas across the
\ncountry were either in a state of ruin or beyond repair is a
\nserious warning for the country to pay attention to education, a
\ntool that gives young people the skills they need to get jobs and
\nbecome responsible members of society.<\/p>\n
In another heartrending report last month, the United Nations
\nEducational Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) said
\nthat 1.8 million children, or 7 percent of Indonesia's 26 million
\nchildren between the ages of seven and 12, were forced to drop
\nout of school before completing the fifth grade.<\/p>\n
Of those who stayed in school to complete their primary
\neducation, only 55 percent proceeded to secondary school. The
\nUnesco report said this figure still fared better than Asian
\ncountries with big populations like Bangladesh, Pakistan, China
\nand India, but was below Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, a
\ncountry which was ravaged by war two decade ago.<\/p>\n
The director general for elementary education at the Ministry
\nof Education, Indradjati Sidi, said it would take between five
\nand 10 years to renovate the dilapidated schools based on the
\nexisting budget assumption of Rp 625 billion (US$ 75 million) per
\nyear. Budget constraints will make it extremely difficult, if not
\nimpossible, for the government to build new schools to
\naccommodate new students amid annual population growth of 1.52
\npercent.<\/p>\n
The high figure of dropouts and large number of decrepit
\nschools both have the potential to slow if not completely stop
\nthe nine-year compulsory education program, which is just the tip
\nof the iceberg of national education.<\/p>\n
These problems are happening as more and more foreign schools
\nand universities enter Indonesia, either in the form of joint
\noperations or joint management. The onslaught of foreign
\neducational institutions has the positive effect of prodding
\nlocal competitors to raise their quality, but it may aggravate
\nsocietal problems like jealousy among graduates of domestic
\nschools and universities who cannot compete with foreign
\nuniversity graduates in the job market.<\/p>\n
More importantly, education also functions to adjust students'
\nattitude and behavior as members of a democratic society, in line
\nwith the principles of nation building.<\/p>\n
The government, thanks to a more conducive political
\natmosphere, has done a relatively good job on education through
\norganizational, pedagogical and political approaches in the last
\nthree years. A striking example was the approval of a national
\neducation law in 2003, despite objections by some quarters to
\nsome of the clauses in the law.<\/p>\n
But the government has done little to address the pressing
\nissues of the hiring, retention and dismissal of teachers,
\nsystems of merit pay, more effective use of instructional time
\nand improved curriculum.<\/p>\n
There has also been no concrete plan by the government to
\nresolve a long-standing but fundamental aspect of the pedagogical
\napproach. Should schools stick to the existing concept of
\ninstruction, which is suitable for a paternalistic society like
\nIndonesia but blamed by experts for a lack of creativity, as this
\nmodel places students as passive objects, like receptacles. Or
\nshould the country introduce a more libertarian approach, which
\nputs an emphasis on how to engage students in critical thinking
\nand the quest for humanization.<\/p>\n
The programs to rectify the education system should include
\nefforts to fight corruption and abuses of power. Transparency,
\nsimpler bureaucratic procedures and rigorous control in the
\nplanning and implementation of education projects should be a
\nmain agenda of the campaign.<\/p>\n
Experts say that only about 40 percent of the budget for
\neducation projects like school buildings goes to its target,
\nwhile the remainder lands in the pockets of officials and
\ndevelopers. This results in shoddy construction and a shorter
\nlifespan for school buildings.<\/p>\n
Efforts to end criminal practices in the production and sale
\nof textbooks, which result in higher prices for students, must be
\npart of the anticorruption campaign. Publishers continue to print
\nnew textbooks every year with slight modifications in content,
\nadditional graphics and color photos, and sell them to schools
\nwith the tacit approval of officials at the Ministry of National
\nEducation.<\/p>\n
The government should also be made to conduct a total review
\non education and put a stop to the partial or patchwork solutions
\nof the past. The overhaul should target an area considered
\nsensitive by Muslims, like a review of the education system at
\nIslamic boarding schools (pesantren), home to more than two
\nmillion students throughout the country.<\/p>\n
Pesantren played a key role in national education before and
\nduring the early years of independence in the 1940s, but six
\ndecades later standards, curriculums and teaching methods in most
\nof these schools are comparatively low when compared to the
\nstandards at public schools, an explanation often given by
\nexperts for the inability of pesantren graduates to compete in
\nthe job market.<\/p>\n
Experts agree, however, that a plan to build Indonesia into a
\nmodern country will remain an illusion if the country does not
\nreform its education system and address the chronic illiteracy
\nproblem and backwardness among some groups.<\/p>\n
The recent revelations of an education crisis ahead of the
\nelections gives Indonesians the opportunity to demand the
\nlegislative and executive branches make a change in education.
\nThe fact that the Constitutions mandates the state allocate 20
\npercent of the budget for education is not enough, as proven by
\nthe reality that not a single area in the country follows this
\nbudget requirement.<\/p>\n
In any democratic country the government is a main provider of
\neducation, and the elections are a chance for citizens, as the
\nreal holders of power, to judge and decide who will be their
\nfuture leaders. Choose leaders with vision, leadership and a
\ncommitment to education.<\/p>\n
The writer is a visiting scholar at the Graduate School of
\nJournalism at the University of California, Berkeley.<\/p>",
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