Globalization era and education in Indonesia

Globalization era and education in Indonesia

Mochtar Buchori, Legislator, Jakarta, mbuchori@indo.net.id

Globalization has come to us, and no nation, country or
government can escape from it. It is a huge global force,
economic and political force, whose actions affect the lives of
big and small countries alike, either positively or negatively.

We have thus far been a poor performer in this highly
competitive global game. We lose much, and gain little. The hope
is that we will have generations that will perform better at this
game. This hope will materialize only if we succeed in redressing
our education, and transform it into an institution capable of
giving the young what the late scholar Soedjatmoko termed
national learning capability. This is the capability of a nation
to learn from experiences encountered in daily life and the
capability to learn to become wise in life.

This redressing act can be referred to as globalizing our
education. This should be performed at two levels, i.e. at the
operational level and at the fundamental level.

At the operational level, globalizing education means
adjusting education to changes in educational practices brought
about by globalization. The purpose is to prevent our education
from becoming obsolete and irrelevant within new global practices
in education.

At the fundamental level, globalizing our education means
also paying due attention to the idiosyncrasies of our
educational system and society. This is to anchor our renewed
education to social and cultural realities.

The main difference between globalization at these two levels
is that globalization at the fundamental level purports to
generate an educational system capable of preparing the coming
generations for an intelligent participation in globalization.
The dream is that Indonesia will be represented by people who are
conscious of the needs of their country while performing their
role as active members of a global community.

How do we globalize our education at the operational level?

No one has any previous experience. Our education, after being
modified for globalization, should be able to prepare the coming
generations for more effective communication and interaction with
people from other cultures. So the the range of foreign languages
our education system offers must be reexamined.

Two other important ideas are about broadening horizons, and
about making the young aware of the man-made disasters that
threatens our life on this planet. We must thus to think about
courses that will make the coming generations literate about our
environmental conditions, human conflicts, and about the
accomplishments of organizations whose mission is to save our
planet and humanity itself.

The agenda for globalizing education at the fundamental level
would include the essential step, at this stage, to make an in-
depth inquiry of basic causes of our poor performance in the
globalization game, and how to correct it -- and how our
culture, political system, and economic condition can be held
responsible for our poor performance. Then the issue would be how
the future generations can overcome these obstacles.

can look at how countries like the U.S., Canada, members of
the European Union, and Japan, have prepared their youth to
become trustworthy representatives of their respective countries
in the globalization game.

We should, of course, not simply copy their systems, but this
kind of comparative study should make it possible for us to know
why in their respective cultural settings their systems work.
From this point we can sketch the contours of our globalization-
oriented educational reform.

The preparation of teachers should make them aware of the
facts and demands of globalization, about the basic features of
our culture, our economic and political systems, and about the
evolution of our educational system. This must be made part of
the reform.

This is a huge order, but unless this is done, we will never
have an educated manpower capable of transforming our educational
system into a national instrument with which to improve our
performance in the next phases of globalization.

Only an educational force that understands the reform agenda
and has a grasp of the basic idea behind the program can
effectively implement a platform for a comprehensive educational
reform. The best implementers of any educational program are
those who can inspire and goad the young toward reaching the
dream envisioned by the program.

To paraphrase Soedjatmoko, reformers must learn how to light
the fire of hope in the hearts of the young, and how to keep this
flame burning.