Changing the system to teach democracy

Changing the system to teach democracy

By Mochtar Buchori

JAKARTA (JP): Politics and the economy constitute the core of
our current reform movement. In addition talk has also been heard
about the urgency of legal reform.

But until very recently no sign has been seen or heard of the
need for reform in the field of education. It is only during
these last two weeks that educationists, educators and education
bureaucrats have begun to talk about educational reform.

From the discussions I have followed thus far, however, I have
the impression that no agreement has been reached yet concerning
what should constitute the essence of our educational reform,
should this ever take place.

Educational reform can be discussed either in terms of the
present reform movement or in terms of conditions within the
educational system itself.

If the first approach is followed, then discussions about
educational reform will proceed along the lines of how our
education should be redesigned to make it a significant part of
the present reform movement.

But if it is discussed in terms of the conditions within the
educational system, then dialog concerning educational reform
will have to be based primarily on the weaknesses of the system
itself, using considerations about our present political and
economic conditions only as auxiliary material.

In the history of education, reform is usually launched only
after the education community realizes that the education system
has not been functioning properly during a relatively extended
period of time, and has caused conditions that trigger
disappointment and criticism among the public.

Has our educational system performed so disappointingly? And
since when has a significant portion of the public become
dissatisfied with our schools?

I personally think that the performance of our educational
system has become increasingly disappointing since 1972.

It is during this period that political forces within our
society have systematically eroded the pedagogical foundations of
our schools.

It is also during this period that our teachers have been
condemned to be mere instruments of the bureaucracy and have been
robbed of their privilege as educators who can perform their
professional duty with sufficient pedagogical freedom.

The increasingly centralized and politicized management of our
educational system has created many stigmatizing conditions and
practices in our schools.

The academic quality of our graduates has continuously
declined, methods of punishing students have been employed that
violate pedagogical and ethical standards and teachers have been
involved in coercing parents to purchase educational items that
have been monopolized by politically well-connected groups.

Undesirable examples like these and aspirations expressed by
the public concerning improvements that should be brought into
our schools must be discussed openly and honestly. I think such
discussions will help us identify educational issues that can
then be considered as the essence of the educational reform we
are anxious to carry out.

My own preference is to discuss educational reform in terms of
our current reform movement. This preference is based on a very
simple reasoning. I think that one of the basic aims of our
current reform movement is to rehabilitate and cultivate
democracy in our society. This is an objective that will take
years to accomplish.

The magnitude of this task becomes visible only if we take
into account the destruction of the infrastructure of democracy
that was perpetrated by the Soeharto regime since 1971. Both the
traditional and modern foundations of democracy that were
carefully preserved or laid down by generations of political
leaders prior to the Soeharto regime have been completely wiped
out.

To climb up from our present ruinous condition and reach a
sufficiently stable state of democracy will take, in my
estimation, approximately 10 to 15 years. That is if during this
period the work of restoring and cultivating democracy is
sustained continuously.

There is no guarantee that democracy will bloom in the future.
There is always the possibility that our society will slide back
once again into feudalistic and authoritarian practices.

It is only when each successive generation reinforces and
promotes the achievements of the previous generation in defending
democracy that our society will move upward in the democratic
scale.

It is precisely for this reason that the educational reform we
intend to carry out must give sufficient attention to promoting
the right kind of political education, that is education toward
responsible citizenship.

This kind of political education will face two types of
problems in our schools: technical problems and foundational
problems.

The technical problems will include, among other things, the
development of syllabi and teaching materials, developing
teaching methodology particularly designed for this purpose and
providing our teachers with the knowledge and skills needed to
carry out this very important educational innovation.

Weighty as these technical problems may be, graver still is
the foundational problem, that is the problem of creating a
democratic climate that is currently absent in our schools and in
our society in general.

In the end we must realize that it is just impossible to teach
democracy in a repressive environment. In addition we must also
realize that teachers ingrained with feudalistic and
authoritarian inclinations cannot possibly teach democracy to the
younger generation.

It is our task to create this democratic climate in our
schools. We must help our teachers in this case, because in the
end it is they who will have to carry out this almost improbable
job.

As I see it, against the backdrop of the paternalistic
tradition that still pervades our schools, the essence of the
challenge is how to make our teachers adopt a democratic attitude
in their daily performance without losing their authority.

We, together with our teachers, have to learn that teachers'
authority does not depend upon our tradition of putting our
teachers hierarchically above the students. Genuine authority of
the teacher depends upon personal integrity, academic ability,
and willingness to share knowledge and ignorance with the
students.

These are characteristics that in my opinion will preserve the
authority of our teachers no matter how egalitarian they position
themselves vis-a-vis the students.

The writer is an observer of social and cultural affairs.