Education, another mean to eradicate corruption: Experts
Education, another mean to eradicate corruption: Experts
Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Schools could help disseminate anti-corruption messages among
students from an early age, an expert said on Thursday.
Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University rector Azyumardi
Azra said the nationwide campaign against corruption could be
shared with students in school during political and moral
classes.
"Subjects focusing on moral values like religion and the
Pancasila state ideology should explicitly address corruption,
its implications and its consequences."
Azyumardi suggested teachers promote good governance and clean
government, the basic principles to fight corruption.
He said school textbooks needed revising to include corruption
as an additional subject. Such reference books would be
obligatory as it would help students understand better the
threats and dangers of corruption.
"It will be less expensive than to have the teachers trained,"
said Azyumardi, adding it would need subsidies from the Ministry
of National Education and other related institutions.
Rampant corruption in Indonesia has motivated a number of
institutions to sign a pact on corruption eradication. Nahdlatul
Ulama and Muhammadiyah, the country's largest Muslim
organizations, have joined the movement, which has also seen the
Indonesian Chambers of Commerce declaring war against bribery.
The government has come under fire for its lackluster move
against corruption, collusion and nepotism -- the raisons d'etre
of the reform movement that forced the corrupt and authoritarian
New Order regime to fall in May 1998.
Learning that corruptors often launder the stolen money
abroad, Indonesia plans to sign a United Nations Convention
against Corruption in Mexico in December.
House of Representatives legislator Mochtar Buchori said that
to promote the anticorruption campaign, schools needed to
underscore the values of education that provides not only
knowledge but the wisdom behind it.
"Nowadays, schools are focusing more on the knowledge of
education instead of its values," said Mochtar, who is also a
member of the House of Representatives' Commission VI on
education and religious affairs.
He discovered that religion subjects taught in schools
highlighted more on the rituals and the dos and don'ts rather
than the moral values.
"It's not a matter of subject, but substance. People now think
that knowledge is power, therefore they seek as much knowledge as
possible without realizing that it will have no meaning without
wisdom," said Mochtar.
He said the whole philosophy of education needed revision,
which should start with the teachers.
"Teachers have to deepen their vision. They have to understand
that their duty is not just teaching, but to educate students and
lead them to wisdom," he said.