Educational ads
Educational ads
From Media Indonesia
Our educational sector is in a mess now because the government has yet to take stringent measures against educational institutions -- courses and colleges -- which violate the law. People are disappointed, having been cheated by promises made by advertisements placed by these educational institutions, which will resort to any means to lure prospective students.
I would like to urge people to guard against being taken in by advertisements placed by rogue educational institutions, in which they promise to find jobs for their graduates. It should be borne in mind that these promises usually trap the consumers.
At the same time I also would like to urge the government to take action against courses or educational institutions that obviously violate the law, for example those who fail to mention the word "course" on their signs and administrative equipment (Article 3 subarticle 5 of ministerial decree No. 261/U/1999). If the government does not take any action, there will be confusion in our educational sector. A course cannot call its participants college students, for example, when a person who has completed the course will be equivalent in status to a junior high school leaver.
The word "course" on the sign of an educational institution will help someone decide whether to join this course or, rather, join a university. What happens today is that many courses use the term, which was previously confined to universities. Hence the difficulty in distinguishing courses and universities.
It is my hope that the Ministry of National Education, which has just completed a national working meeting (June 26 through June 28, 2000, in its Sawangan educational and training center) implements its working program, namely to put in order and take stringent measures against educational institutions violating educational regulations. With the aim of ridding the educational sector of opportunists and the "educational mafia" and ensuring that the nation's young generation is of good quality.
M. ARDAM
Jakarta