Emancipating minds

Emancipating minds

Today, May 2, Indonesia commemorates National Education Day. The
date was chosen in remembrance of Ki Hajar Dewantara who was born
106 years ago in Yogyakarta.

It was he who pioneered the first truly Indonesian school with
the intent of addressing the segregation experienced by the
indigenous population under the Dutch colonial rule.

He, along with other famous historical figures such as Kartini
and Dewi Sartika, understood the true value of education. It was
more than a simple process of teaching people to read and write,
or a diploma to hang on the wall.

Education was, and still is, about emancipation (for men and
women alike). Education is the foundation of social empowerment,
economic mobility and leads to national development.

A nation can be de jure independent. Nevertheless, without an
educated mass its soul remains colonized by ignorance.

It is no coincidence that the founders of the nation's
nationalist movements were the educated few who were enlightened
through the liberating world of academia.

This nation's independence was paid for with centuries of
blood and suffering. But it was the innovation of educated
nationalists who charted Indonesia's road to independence.

Education was the initial fuel and eventual bond of an
Indonesian consciousness.

In this era of cyberspace, a strong public education system is
a requisite for any developed nation. It is not natural resources
or military might which is the determinant of success. Countries
like Japan, South Korea and Singapore have shown that the
backbone of their economic rise is its determined, skilled and
educated peoples.

Despite the populist rhetoric and political posturing, since
the economic crisis of 1997, education has become a secondary
consideration for this nation.

While some of our gifted children shine in international
academic olympiads, their achievement is, sadly, no reflection on
the prevailing state of education.

In a "crisis-like" environment where the main objective is
survival, education becomes a mere tool to that affect.

That being the case, our education outlook has not progressed
much from the colonial era in which education for the indigenous
population was designed to ensure the public service was properly
staffed.

We seem to be moving away, as one writer wrote in this
newspaper, from an education system "connected to the
humanitarian and holistic needs for intellectual and social
growth."

Here education no longer empowers, but condemns people to
predetermined servility.

Our distractions also brings us to superfluous national
debates concerning sex education, religion in the curriculum and
school uniforms. Yes these issues are important, but they are
seasoning for the more important, and basic, entree -- simple
nourishment for hungry minds.

Schools, of course, should also be free from political
interests.

Vocational education must go hand-in-hand with a curriculum
that is geared toward intellectual enlightenment. Primary school
children should be injected with creativity, while higher
education is an intellectual emancipation ground, where
humanity's greatest works -- in science and the arts; and
concepts conservatism, secularism, religion, ethics, the rule of
law and humanitarianism -- are discovered and developed.

We need more than simple robots who can screw bolts in a
production line.

Without the poets and thinkers this country would never have
become independent. Their absence in the future dooms this nation
to global servility -- colonialism by other means.

A recommitment is needed. What other better investment can
this nation make then investing in the education and health for
its citizens?

It is not a matter of sparse resources. Neither is it a case
of dividing resources equally to all sectors for development. It
is about saying that the country wants to commit to emancipating
its people regardless of the cost.

Enlightenment never comes cheap. But the cost of national
retardation is even more costly.