Quality schools vital for nation's survival<\/p>\n
By Mochtar Buchori<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Post has carried five advertisements
\nand one report on quality education from April 4 to 15. The
\nadvertisements were placed by the Jaya Global School in Jakarta,
\nthe Millfield Co-educational Boarding School in England, the
\nSingapore-style International School (to be opened in Jakarta),
\nthe British International School in Jakarta, and the Canadian
\nInternational School in Singapore. The one report highlighted the
\neducational model that is currently being carried out at the
\nelite Al-Azhar boarding school in Lippo City, Jakarta.<\/p>\n
As I understand it, these advertised schools offer education
\nthat will assist pupils to accomplish four fundamental
\nobjectives: academic competence, moral integrity, social
\nmaturity, and cultural modernity. It is my impression that these
\nfour objectives are also parts of the pedagogical design at Al-
\nAzhar boarding school in Lippo City, Jakarta.<\/p>\n
This particular campaign suggests to me that there is a real
\nmarket for quality education in Indonesia. There would be no
\nadvertisements of this kind in the first place if there were no
\npotential \"buyers\", such as parents who, for their children, are
\nlooking for \"alternative education\" different from and more
\nrelevant than the one that has been offered thus far by our
\nordinary schools.<\/p>\n
It seems that more and more people have become aware that life
\nin the years beyond 2000 will be entirely different from life as
\nit is now. More and more parents seem to realize that, to prepare
\ntheir children in a serious way for a competitive future, they
\nmust give them education that can effectively help them acquire
\nsolid competence in languages -- Indonesian, English, and a third
\nlanguage which can be Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, or another
\nmodern European language -- mathematics and natural sciences,
\nsocial and human sciences, and a certain degree of literacy in
\ncomputer technology.<\/p>\n
In short, these parents do not wish their children to receive
\nan education that will make them stuck in outlooks and lifestyles
\nwhich do not correspond to the demands of modern life. They do
\nnot want, among other things, education that will cause their
\nchildren to be linguistically uncultivated, scientifically and
\ntechnologically illiterate, and unable to find their way in the
\nmaze of modern cyberspace.<\/p>\n
All the elite schools now operating in Jakarta promise just
\nwhat these parents demand. And as I see it, the efforts that will
\nbe made to fulfill this promise will, as a consequence, generate
\na type of school that will be significantly different from the
\nstandard school we now have. In the end, the Indonesian school
\nwill be transformed by efforts to deliver this \"quality
\neducation.\"<\/p>\n
One very fundamental question which arises in this regard is
\nwhether quality education will remain restricted to schools
\npatronized by the rich. This is a question we cannot afford to
\ntake lightly.<\/p>\n
If this nation is to survive the economic, political, and
\ncultural \"onslaught\" of modern life in the future, providing
\nquality education to a significantly large segment of the young
\ngeneration is imperative. Leaving the majority of the young
\ngeneration incompetent in languages, uninformed about new
\nadvances in science and technology, and illiterate in the use of
\nmodern communication technology will make our nation unable to
\ncompete effectively with other nations.<\/p>\n
Must quality education be expensive? In a way, yes. It has
\nbeen shown throughout the history of education that quality
\neducation never comes cheap. Quality education can only be
\ndelivered by quality teachers -- they have to be paid well -- who
\nhave at their disposal quality teaching materials and quality
\nteaching aids, both of which are relatively costly.<\/p>\n
Out of the three, teachers are the most critical factor in
\nimproving the quality of schools. It is still possible to provide
\ngood education in the absence of modern teaching materials and
\nmodern teaching aids as long as there are quality teachers. But
\nit is impossible to have good education if there are only
\nmediocre teachers, no matter how modern the teaching materials
\nand teaching aids are.<\/p>\n
The continuous upgrading of teachers is thus the key strategy
\ntowards increasing the ability of our schools to provide quality
\neducation. This can be done by providing the opportunity to our
\nschool teachers to be informed about new developments in
\neducation, and by continuously encouraging them to improve their
\nteaching competence.<\/p>\n
Service for the upgrading of this type of teacher will, I
\nthink, become a real demand in the near future. Schools which are
\nnot capable of motivating and facilitating their teachers towards
\ncontinuous self-improvement will be doomed to become an obsolete
\nand irrelevant institution.<\/p>\n
The writer is rector of the IKIP-Muhammadiyah Teachers
\nTraining College, Jakarta.<\/p>",
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