Education must be free

Education must be free

After almost sixty years of independence, education has
remained a luxury only affordable to the wealthy elite (top
government officials, wealthy businesspeople and the
nonindigenous population). During Indonesia's independence, the
stress in education was on producing intellectuals who did not
care much about the fate of the common people. By entering
political parties, they became aware that the involvement of
ordinary people was essential to the development of nationhood
and achieving national goals.

Today's education, from elementary to secondary and high
school and even to university level, must be free to people at
every level in society. Then, students must be fully aware that
everything should be weighed up in the global perspective,
including competition in trade and human skills.

It has become imperative, for the majority of the people, that
education must be free at all levels, something they may still
dream about for another fifty years perhaps. More than anything
else, today's Indonesian leaders in polities and those deeply
concerned with the intellectual well-being of future generations,
should do whatever is in their power to make education free for
them rather than merely improving the system, or reaching for the
intellectual high ground.

Stress should be put on creating trustworthy personalities
ready to sacrifice their interests for the good of others. It is
a sin to create a generation of hungry young people deprived of
their right to a basic education in a potentially rich country
such as Indonesia, when even public demonstrations do not help
any more.

GANDHI SUKARDI

Jakarta