Govt to overhaul national education

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government will mark National Education Day on May 2 by launching a program to revamp the national education system, which has been widely criticized for failing to foster creativity.

Minister of Religious Affairs Said Agil Husain Al-Munawar told reporters that the Cabinet of President Megawati Soekarnoputri had assigned himself, Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla, Minister of National Education Abdul Malik Fajar, Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno and State Minister of Administrative Reform Faisal Tamin to carry out the program.

"We have to admit that our education system is at its lowest ebb," Said Agil said as quoted by Antara on Saturday.

Speaking at a function in the Lampung capital of Bandar Lampung, Said said the government would not blame past authoritarian regimes for the poor quality of education in the country.

Said Agil maintained that the small state budget allocation for education, and the leniency of most teachers were the main reasons for the system's poor condition.

"Many teachers tend to corrupt the mark of their students and allow the pupils to move up regardless of their school performance," he said.

Indonesia is among developing countries which reserve less than 10 percent of their state budget for education. The current financial crisis has added to the educational woes.

Due to the poor standard of education, Indonesians fail to match their foreign counterparts in terms of skills and intelligence.

"We are still regarded as blue collar workers, whose skills are very limited," Said said.

Vice President Hamzah Haz has repeatedly called for an improvement of the national curriculum as part of efforts needed to upgrade education standards.

The country celebrates National Education Day every May 2 to honor the birthday of Ki Hajar Dewantoro, a proponent of education who built the Taman Siswa school in 1922, the first of its kind which teaches nationalism.