Flaws seen in bill on education
Flaws seen in bill on education
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Educationists are demanding changes in the bill on the national
education system currently being deliberated at the House of
Representatives because it does not embrace the people's need for
better education.
At least 300 school headmasters, directors of private school
foundations and activists attending a one-day seminar held by the
Private Schools Consultative Body (BMPS) here on Saturday
questioned the substance of the bill.
They said that the bill discriminated against women and the
disabled, and failed to give attention to the non-formal
education system and poor children, who could not enjoy a decent
education.
"The bill deals only with the elite and is focused on the big
cities. It has ignored the principle that education is not about
government subsidies, but peoples' rights," Missiyah of
Alternative Education for Women (Kapal Perempuan) remarked.
Article 25 of the bill categorizes women's education as
out-of-school education, which is a supplement to formal
education, while no clause in the bill regulates the government's
obligation to provide equal education opportunities for the
disabled.
A speaker at the seminar, BMPS director Toenggoel P. Siagian,
highlighted the bill's contradictory articles, which allow the
schools to manage their own funds and to set curricula based on
the students' ability.
"But on the other hand the bill also wipes out the spirit of
the society-based education by maintaining the government's power
to supervise national education," he said.
He referred to Article 8 of the bill, which states that the
society has the right to participate in the planning,
implementation, supervision and evaluation of education programs.
However, Article 10 of the bill gives the government and the
regional administrations the right to regulate, supervise and
evaluate the education programs.
Another speaker, linguist Bambang Kaswanti Purwa, who was a
member of the bill's drafting team, admitted the weaknesses of
the bill and invited the people to make corrections.
Siagian deplored the legislators' failure to socialize the
draft among educators.
The draft law was one of six House's initiative bills which
should have been endorsed during the last sitting period between
Jan. 7 and March 28.
The House has also proposed bills on presidency, bank credit,
child protection, medical profession and sports.
The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) ad hoc committee I
for constitutional amendment agreed recently to recommend that
the central government and local governments allocate 10 percent
of the state and provincial budgets respectively for education.
If the MPR approves the fourth constitutional amendments in
August, the new legislation on budget allocation for education
will take effect in 2003.