Educational reform key to quality nation
Educational reform key to quality nation
Look around us. Our central bank governor has been convicted
of graft and the speaker of the House is a defendant. Both have
denied any wrongdoing and the charges made against them, arguing
that they were only doing their job.
Meantime, surveys by local and international organizations
show that Indonesia is unrivaled when it comes to corruption.
Here, white-collar crime is rampant.
State leaders are no longer accountable to the people. People
express their disappointment the wrong way by staging violent
protests. Everywhere, every day, there are reports of people
running amok, of riots, of clashes.
All these are an indication of declining morality. To some
extent, the education system is to blame for the soaring
decadence. However, many believe it is the government that must
be held responsible for adopting an education system that has
failed to create a nation with a moral conscience.
Instead of promoting a balance in skill and intellectual
development with personality and character building, the
government has for years focused on an education system that sees
students as an object.
Students are an object of the industrial era. They must study
to fulfill the needs of the industry. They must study to get
important positions at state offices or at private companies. The
result is a materialistic society that worships material gain but
neglects the values that make the people both smart and cultured.
This situation must end and it must start with reform in the
education system.
The amendment to Article 31 of the 1945 Constitution is
expected to be a starting point in educational reform. In order
to give a brief picture of the condition of the current education
system and what needs to be done to improve it, The Jakarta
Post's Kurniawan Hari wrote the following reports.
Only through educational reform can we expect to improve the
morality and personality of our students, so that one day they
will become not only skilled and intelligent but responsible
people who dare to take up challenges and who are also ready to
admit their mistakes and face the consequences of their deeds.