Education bill and the real mess behind the educational system<\/p>\n
Elwin Tobing, Founder, The Indonesian Institute, Jakarta,
\nelwin@theindonesianinstitute.org<\/p>\n
Anyone new to the debate on the education bill recently
\nendorsed by the legislature may be forgiven for thinking that the
\nissue was about religion, not education, given the main
\ncontroversy surrounding it.<\/p>\n
Yet for years, our national education system has been in a
\nmess. Problems include a shortage of teachers and a limited
\neducation budget. National spending on education as a percentage
\nof national output is one of the lowest in Asia. Other concerns
\ninclude a poor quality of teaching, inadequate textbooks and a
\nlow standard of postsecondary institutions.<\/p>\n
According to a survey conducted by Asiaweek magazine in 2000
\non the 77 best multidisciplinary schools of Asia and Oceania,
\nUniversity of Indonesia and Gajah Mada University, the best
\nperformers from Indonesia, were ranked at No. 61 and No. 68,
\nrespectively. Kyoto University was ranked No. 1 and the National
\nUniversity of Singapore was No. 4.<\/p>\n
Our institutions of higher education are behind those of
\nMalaysia, Philippines and Thailand. The University of Malaya in
\nMalaysia was ranked No. 41, University of the Philippines was No.
\n48 and Thammasat University in Thailand was No. 51.<\/p>\n
The low quality of college and university graduates is another
\nconcern. From 1982 to 1998, unemployment among the educated labor
\nforce continued to increase while the number of jobless workers
\nwho were less educated decreased, a trend that is likely to be
\nseen in the five years following 1998. In the early 1990s, former
\neducation minister Wardiman Djojonegoro tried resolving the
\nproblem by introducing a concept of link and match. The concept,
\nhowever, was a failure as the gap between the labor market and
\neducation, especially postsecondary education, continues to
\nwiden.<\/p>\n
The latest results from the nationally administered final
\nexams for senior high schools only adds further weight to the
\nmessy problem. About 10.6 percent of the public high school
\nstudents who took the exams across the nation failed.<\/p>\n
The disgraceful results occurred in West Sumatra, East Nusa
\nTenggara Timur and North Sulawesi, where the rate of failure was
\n30 percent, 29.54 percent and 26.47 percent, respectively. That
\nmeans 12,044 high school students of the 37,522 who took the test
\nin West Sumatra, failed. This number is not a mistake. If one out
\nof every three high school students cannot pass their final
\nexams, there is a serious problem with our educational system.<\/p>\n
The failure rate among vocational high school students is even
\nworse. Almost half of the vocational high school students in East
\nNusa Tenggara could not pass the test. Nationally, there were
\n900,000 students from public high schools and 500,000 students of
\nvocational high school students who took the exams.<\/p>\n
Dikmenti Suharyanto, the national head of the vocational
\nschool program, said mathematics was the main cause for the
\nstudents' failure, followed by English. About 25 percent of the
\nstudents from vocational schools who failed performed poorly in
\nmaths. At one public high school in Jakarta, 17 of the failing 20
\nstudents had flunked the exam because of the English section.<\/p>\n
Improving the quality of teaching, redesigning the curriculum
\nand hiring more qualified teachers for the two subjects would be
\nobvious solutions, however, this all implies an increase in
\nspending. But the new Education Law also implies more of the
\nsame. The government has to deploy 100,000 religious teachers.
\nMinister of Religious Affairs Said Agiel Munawar said that the
\ngovernment was ready to deploy 30,000 additional teachers funded
\nby the state budget and an additional 70,000 teachers would be
\nrecruited from the Ministry of National Education.<\/p>\n
Ours is not only a rapidly changing era but also a
\ntechnologically demanding one. Globalization means ferocious
\ncompetition in almost all aspects. The fundamental key to
\nsurvival and prosperity is the ability to acquire knowledge, and
\neducation is the means to do that. The fundamental purpose of
\neducation is to teach students how to imagine, think, analyze and
\npropose solutions to problems as well as how to behave.<\/p>\n
To be able to compete internationally, our entire population
\nhas to be better educated than the populations of our
\ncompetitors. Our secondary schools and colleges need to strive
\nfor excellence in all fields and particularly in science and
\ntechnology.<\/p>\n
Our universities and research institutions have sufficient
\nhuman and financial resources to be able to compete globally as
\nwell as to bring them closer to the business sector. Our teachers
\nhave to be better teachers. Our students have to become
\nmultilingual with English as their second language. Every student
\nwill need to do things better than they are at present. The key
\nto the future is what is being taught in today's classrooms.<\/p>\n
Just like a monument, education endures not because of the
\nbricks but because of what they represent. Its true foundation is
\nneither of rock nor symbols, but of values such as liberty and
\nfreedom; the freedom to question and to explore the answers of
\nany question. These core values, which underpin education and the
\ndevelopment of our society, have to be solid.<\/p>\n
But the recent debate and the new bill have revealed something
\nelse. We tend to be more interested in symbols rather than
\naddressing the fundamental problems that are worsening our
\neducation system. Instead of taking care of the mess, the
\npoliticians, leaders and many influential figures in our society
\nare trying to appease the masses.<\/p>\n
As a nation, our huge task goes beyond improving the education
\nsystem. We also have a huge mess in our national economy and
\nfsecurity. The number of unemployed in the country almost totals
\n40 million. The number of people living in poverty has also
\nreached about 40 million. Since 1998, large numbers of people in
\ndifferent parts of Indonesia have had to flee from one part of
\nthe country to another, primarily as a result of political
\nconflict and ethnic violence.<\/p>\n
The official number of internally displaced persons in
\nIndonesia has hit more than one million. It accounts for more
\nthan 20 percent of the total number of people who have been
\nforcibly displaced by internal conflicts, intercommunal violence
\nand related violations of human rights in Asia. Many are in need
\nof basic assistance, protection and reintegration and development
\nsupport.<\/p>\n
This huge task demands sincerity, not dishonesty. It requires
\na respect for differences, not disrespect. It demands
\ncooperation, not the alienation of others.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/education-bill-and-the-real-mess-behind-the-educational-system-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}