All over the world, managing a schools can be a real challenge

All over the world, managing a schools can be a real challenge

Simon Marcus Gower, Jakarta

It seems as though the management of schools, and the
schooling system, in Indonesia is constantly facing problems and
difficulties: It is not achieving standards; that it is not
preparing students for the world of today; and even that many
schools are the subject of malpractices and corrupt and collusive
behavior that forms an obstacle to progress.

It is very easy, and quite common, when considering matters of
difficulty to exercise negativity that only makes matters worse.
We should have a breadth to our thinking that allows us to
realize the nature of our problems and apply a realistic and
positive approach to finding solutions.

Perhaps too often we permit ourselves to wallow in the realms
of negativity that undermines the chances of solutions being
found. It is true that there are problems for education in
Indonesia but it is equally true that there are significant
problems for education in countries all around the world and
being aware of this can help understand the problems being met
and assist in the realization that they are not unique.

People have a tendency to apply the mentality that "the grass
is greener on the other-side of the fence". For example, people
in Indonesia will consistently look to Western countries as an
example of a good place for schools and schooling.

But a shallow and simple analysis of the Western approach to
schooling and school systems should not be allowed to bring
people to the naive conclusion that all is well in education
there and all is not well here in Indonesia.

Examples can be found in this system of education of
institutes in which children have access to outdated, ill-
equipped and insufficient libraries. School libraries can often
be found that have encyclopedias that are thirty or forty years
out of date and books that are in terrible need of repair. School
buildings can be found that are decrepit and effectively falling
down.

Worse still many schools in this system of education are
places of danger and great concern for the students attending
them. For example -- many schools are known to be places of risk
at which there is the danger that children are going to be
exposed to drugs and drug taking. On top of this when visiting
some schools within this school system, to enter in to the school
premises it is necessary to pass through a metal detecting device
which most of us would only recognize from airport security
systems.

In short, it is possible to see that schools can be places of
great concern for the health and welfare of the students
attending them. Conditions such as this have to be gravely
concerning and would perhaps leave us with feelings of great
dismay and disappointment for the condition of our schools.

The conditions being described above are in fact conditions
that maybe encountered in schools in the United States of
America. Of course, these are worst case scenarios; these are the
very worst of conditions that can be experienced at schools
there. It would be wrong to think that all schools in America
suffer from conditions such as this; but it is the fact that
these awful conditions do exist.

Many people in Indonesia would quite easily and quickly look
to America as a model for education that this country could and
perhaps even should follow; but perhaps they would not be quite
so quick to see the kind of problems that America too faces in
its education system. We do have to be realistic and honest about
the problems that exist in bringing education to people through
the schooling system.

Criticisms that schools are not providing the right kind of
formula to prepare students for the life that lies ahead of them
are consistent throughout the world and represent the nature of
the challenge of bringing education to people for the twenty
first century. There is a growing recognition throughout the
world that the model of education that is applied in schools
needs to be, practically, constantly updated and improved.

Again, in Indonesia the following thoughts would probably be
seen as familiar and an area that does need to be addressed here:
School students are consistently under pressure and stressed out
by the need to perform in school. They are most often required to
simply regurgitate the knowledge and answers that the teachers
require of them.

They are most typically required to not to "rock the boat".
They are basically required to do as they are told; not to think
but simply accept what is given to them and not to question
authority. The single aim is that they do what is sufficient and
required of them to pass the necessary examinations.

This kind of approach to education would, most likely, be seen
as something that is not really acceptable and that is, in
effect, part of the problem not part of the solution for
education in 2004. And yet those observations of a school system
that simply requires students to not "rock the boat" and do as
they are told and not question are based on an examination of the
school system in the United Kingdom.

It can, then, clearly be seen that problems and challenges
remain for even the most "developed" of nations and their school
systems. Indonesia is experiencing difficulties in rendering its
system of education but this is understandable and, in a very
real sense, it is right. Problems and challenges are,
effectively, at the heart of all education systems and schools.
But the hearts and minds of many should be involved in seeking
solutions and rising to the challenges.

The writer is Executive Principal of the High/Scope Indonesia
School. The opinions expressed above are personal.