Education and nation's identity

Education and nation's identity

An article by a foreign contributor published in The Jakarta
Post on Nov. 15, 2003, expressed deep concern over the present
state of education in Jakarta and in Indonesia in general. It is
interesting because most Indonesian educational experts have so
far not considered this matter important.

The article, RI's schools should target higher standards,
concluded with an alarming statement: "Education has a critical
social role to play and if schools may be seen to undermine this
social role by adopting foreign ways and means, then a genuinely
regrettable condition may have been reached."

The contributor, Simon Marcus Gower, executive principal of
High/Scope Indonesia in Jakarta, wondered why a number of schools
in Jakarta regarded the school curricula of Singapore and
Australia as more superior and appropriate than the national
curriculum. It is obviously incorrect and narrow-minded to
consider local schools only a "preparation" or "stepping-stone"
for further studies in Singapore or Australia. This may be a
negative impact of the strong perception of globalization that
international "competitiveness" should be the main "goal" of
education, so that our efforts to promote the quality of a
typically Indonesian education are ignored for the sake of
"international standards".

It should be deplored that such confusion has begun to prevail
among some of our higher learning authorities, which can be
noticed in their offers of "international classes" in English and
study programs in cooperation with overseas colleges for double
degrees. Program leaders feel proud of "international
recognition" and are thinking of "competitiveness" that enables
graduates to work everywhere in the world, rather than the
capability of solving the nation's own problems. Consequently,
emphasis goes to deductive-logical methods instead of inductive-
empirical ones.

The Japanese are known to have achieved international
superiority thanks to their educational system. I am afraid
Indonesia may fail to achieve this due to its mistaken
educational management, which overlooks the nation's identity.
Globalization is apparently undermining national pride.
Indonesian intellectuals should awake from their slumber!

MUBYARTO
Yogyakarta