Educational reform
In relation to the present social condition, I would like to suggest the following:
a. Many people have lost their jobs because of the monetary crisis and the recent shop burning and looting, which has forced many businesses to close down. To these people, sending children to school is quite a burden. Therefore, to help alleviate this burden, they must be exempted from paying anything in regard to their children's schooling. Unless this policy is enforced, many school children will drop out, a phenomenon not only harmful to human resources development but also contradictory to the spirit of total reform.
b. It is a public secret that toward the beginning of each new school year, final examination grades -- known as NEM -- can be negotiated at certain schools. As this practice obviously exerts an adverse impact on school children, immediate efforts must be made to eliminate it.
c. There must no longer be any deduction from teachers' salaries, and sanctions must be imposed on those still engaged in this practice. To ensure that teachers can live decently and perform their tasks properly, their salaries must be raised.
d. The content of the 1994 curriculum must be reviewed. This curriculum has drawn much criticism from education experts such as J. Drost and Mochtar Buchori. Most agree that this curriculum is burdensome to students, with the result that education in this country is now in a mess and its quality is the lowest in ASEAN.
e. The motto Tut wuri handayani must be made more complete to read Ing ngarso sung tulodo, ing madyo hambangun karso, tut wuri handayani, meaning: In front, serving as a model, in the middle, introducing ideas, at the back, giving positive encouragement. The spirit drawn from this motto, the legacy of the late Ki Hajar Dewantoro, freedom fighter, education scholar and founder of Taman Siswa Educational Institution, must be inculcated in the minds of pupils so that they will later grow into adults useful to the nation and the country.
f. As it is impossible for the minister of education and culture to carry out all the above alone, associations such as the teachers association and the parents and teachers association must be consolidated so that they perform their function in the interest of pupils, pupils' parents, teachers in particular and the education circles in Indonesia in general.
BASUKI
Bekasi, West Java