Focus on education<\/p>\n
How important is education for the future of Indonesia? The
\nquestion is almost absurd in its folly. After all, everybody
\nagrees, and plain common sense tells us, that education is one of
\nthe main pillars on which a modern society rests.<\/p>\n
In fact, the pioneers of the Indonesian independence movement
\nin the late 1920s started to realize their dream of modernizing
\nIndonesian society by setting up the Budi Utomo organization,
\nwhose main aim was to bring modern education within the reach of
\nthe Indonesian people at large.<\/p>\n
Present Indonesian leaders from the President down have also
\nstressed the importance of education for the nation.<\/p>\n
Yet, education is still not getting the proper attention it
\ndeserves. Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri, in a meeting
\nwith delegates of the Muhammadiyah youth organization, recently
\nsaid the government realized the need for allocating sufficient
\nfunds to education but was forced by reality to compromise.<\/p>\n
The government, according to the Vice President, would like to
\nset aside 25 percent of the state budget for education, as many
\nlegislators have demanded. Some members of the House of
\nRepresentatives even threatened to reject the draft budget now
\nbefore the House unless that demand is approved by the
\ngovernment.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Commission IV of the House, which is in
\ncharge of education, has come up with a compromise plan and
\nsuggested a budget of 10 percent to 15 percent of the current
\nyear's budget allocation -- a suggestion that is not likely to be
\nagreed to by the government.<\/p>\n
Given the circumstances, educators and others concerned about
\nthe state of education in this country now place much of their
\nhope on the impending implementation of regional autonomy in the
\nprovinces.<\/p>\n
Minister of National Education Yahya A. Muhaimin, for example,
\ntold a regional meeting of educators in Malang, East Java,
\nrecently, that Jakarta was hoping that in view of the central
\ngovernment's inability to provide enough funds for education the
\nprovinces could do their part in this respect by putting a
\ngreater emphasis on education.<\/p>\n
The autonomous provinces, he said, could do this by, for
\nexample, setting aside some 20 percent of their regional budgets
\nfor education.<\/p>\n
The need for greater attention to be paid to education once
\nregional autonomy has been granted to the provinces was similarly
\nstressed by experts and officials during a recent seminar to mark
\nthe establishment of Banten province.<\/p>\n
Bambang Brodjonegoro, an economist of the Jakarta-based
\nUniversity of Indonesia, said one of the first challenges the new
\nprovince would face if it wants to catch up with more developed
\nareas of Indonesia is to improve the quality of its human
\nresources. For this, improving education in terms of both number
\nof institutions and quality is imperative.<\/p>\n
Banten, he said, must have an adequate number of educational
\ninstitutions ranging from kindergartens to colleges and
\nuniversities to improve the quality of its human resources.<\/p>\n
A survey last year showed that the majority of the province's
\nfour-million work force was illiterate. About 22 percent of the
\npopulation is still jobless and life expectance is about 50
\nyears, or 10 years below the national figure.<\/p>\n
About 32 percent of workers in the area are elementary school
\ndropouts and the majority of the Badui people in the southern
\nparts of the province are illiterate because they live
\npractically isolated from the rest of the province.<\/p>\n
It may be true that Banten cannot be taken as a standard by
\nwhich other regions must be measured. It is equally true,
\nhowever, that some regions in this vast archipelago are worse
\noff, due to their isolated geography.<\/p>\n
Whatever the case, hopefully autonomy will bring some
\nimprovement to educational standards in the regions since it
\nseems that not much hope can be put in the central government in
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
Eventually, though, it is the duty of the government in
\nJakarta as much as those of the regions to see to it that
\nIndonesians everywhere get the kind of proper, modern education
\nto which they are entitled.<\/p>\n
It is difficult to foresee what future this nation will have
\nin the increasingly competitive modern world unless the standard
\nof its education system is dramatically improved.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/focus-on-education-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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