Education for working life
Education for working life
I read with interest Mr. Mochtar Buchori's opinion about
superschools and education. He raises a valid point in
Misperceptions hinder changes in education (The Jakarta Post,
Jan. 11, 1996).
Young people are led to believe that the only useful learning
comes from attending college, listening to professors talk from a
platform and reproducing required information on occasions called
examinations.
Developing countries have been intimidated by the undisputed
acceptance of the assumption that a population made out of PhDs
is a precondition for economic take-off. Following the
conventional wisdom that the number of people in universities
correlates with the potential for economic development;
developing countries ended up with more engineers than
technicians, more doctors than nurses and, in extreme cases, with
architects but no carpenters.
A surplus of university graduates feeds developed countries
with developing countries' best educated people. The India
Institute of Technology (IIT) keeps producing highly qualified
people for export to the U.S., Canada, UK and Australia. A survey
of 1986 graduates of IIT has shown that nearly half of the
graduates are now abroad. IIT spends an average US$12,000 on each
graduate in subsidies. According to official estimates, the
annual loss from migration by the institute's graduates could be
more than $4.5 million. That means a developing country is
subsidizing developed ones.
In contrast, the system of every country with a broad
educational system is to profoundly train a few people in a very
narrow field. These are the ones that strap-on a couple of
boosters to a rocket to send a satellite into geostationary orbit
or develop a new technique to remove tumors. (With the occasional
paleoclimatologist saying the ice caps are melting). A very
shallow education is spread over the rest of the population. Just
enough for the proverbial "porter of a hotel or cashier at the
bank." Many countries developed using this system.
What developing countries need is a program to direct the
majority of its students after finishing compulsory school at the
age of 15 or 16, to two to four-year apprenticeships to prepare
them for working life. This would prepare them as middle-level
technicians: electrotechnicians, electronic technicians,
mechanics, laboratory technicians and tradespeople of all kinds.
OSVALDO COELHO
Bandung, West Java