Educators urge equal access to good education<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The government's "education for all" program,
\nwhile successful, is no longer sufficient, education experts say.<\/p>\n
They are now pushing for "quality education for all".<\/p>\n
"Making quality education accessible to the wider public
\ncannot wait much longer," A. Pekerti, director of the Center of
\nManagement Training, said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
He suggested the massive application of computers in the
\neducation world as one way of providing quality education to as
\nlarge an audience as possible, noting that the cost of software
\nwas falling rapidly.<\/p>\n
The proposal that greater reliance be placed on computers was
\nwidely discussed at a one-day forum on Indonesia's current
\neducation policies at the Universitas Kristen Indonesia (UKI).<\/p>\n
The former director general of non-formal and special
\neducation, W.P. Napitupulu, said that non-formal education --
\nthat provided to those who cannot attend school -- must not
\ndiscriminate on the basis of age.<\/p>\n
"We must promote life-long education," said Napitupulu, who is
\namong the initiators of illiteracy eradication programs pursued
\nthrough the "Package A" modules launched in 1977.<\/p>\n
"There is a broad misunderstanding that non-formal education
\nfor the junior high level is only for 13- to 15-year-olds, in
\naccordance with targets of the compulsory nine-years' schooling
\nprogram," he told the Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
"This is wrong because the State Guidelines stress the right
\nof education for all citizens," he added.<\/p>\n
Teachers, university rectors and officials of the ministry of
\neducation and culture who attended the forum sought to define a
\n"people-oriented education."<\/p>\n
As Indonesia prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary of
\nindependence, the seminar organizers posed the question of
\nwhether the country's national education policies were serving
\nthe public interest.<\/p>\n
Aries Pongtuluran of the UKI called for a higher proportion of
\nthe national budget to be allocated to education, from its
\ncurrent 4.9 percent. He noted that Singapore spends 21.6 percent
\nof its budget on education and Japan 12 percent.<\/p>\n
Pekerti and other speakers stressed that high quality
\neducation could no longer be assumed to be the privilege of those
\nwho can pay.<\/p>\n
"Education should be elitist, meaning high quality," said
\nlinguistics professor Maurits Simatupang, who said the debate on
\nelitist education had wrongly focused only on the costs.<\/p>\n
The problem, he said, was identifying different talents,
\nrather than the differing ability of students to pay.<\/p>\n
Participants had raised current concerns about the growing
\nestablishment of expensive private schools and the fact that
\nwider access to nine years of basic schooling was only just
\nbeginning.<\/p>\n
The head of the research center of the ministry of education
\nand culture, Sri Hardjoko Wirjomartono, said there was a gross
\nlack of the skills needed in industry, trade and modern
\nagriculture.<\/p>\n
He said that some 73 percent of the workforce had only
\nelementary school education or had not even completed elementary
\nschool.<\/p>\n
"Now we have 3,000 Filipino accountants working here because
\nwe lack the people who have the skills," Hardjoko said.<\/p>\n
Napitupulu said the demand for non-formal education for
\nsecondary high school level had increased, but that the
\ngovernment had not met the demand. "People in various areas have
\nset up their own study groups which they call "Package C", and
\nstudy the subjects by themselves," he said.<\/p>\n
The speakers stressed that greater access to high quality
\neducation also means heading towards a more educated society.<\/p>\n
However, they rejected the idea that education should be
\ngeared to the needs of industry and trade.<\/p>\n
"The needs of industry change rapidly given developments in
\ntechnology, but education must always provide basic skills like
\nsystematic thinking," said Simatupang, also a former rector at
\nUKI. (anr)<\/p>",
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