Improving education

It may be that this is not the right moment to extol the importance of education. The apparent indifference with which the public greeted the three-day fourth National Education Convention, which closed in Jakarta on Friday, seems to reflect the low priority that the government gives to education.

At most, there was a brief flicker of public interest when it was reported in the media that a group of university rectors were threatening to demonstrate near the traffic circle in front of Hotel Indonesia to air their resentment over the government's apparent lack of political will to spend more thought -- and funds -- on the advancement of education in this country.

Even that little hope of seeing scores of normally dignified university professors yelling slogans and holding up posters in what has over the past few years become known as Jakarta's Plaza de Mayo, though, was dashed when the plan was canceled.

It is not that Indonesians don't care about the sorry state of education in their country. Indonesians have long lamented the low marks which Indonesian competitors -- one or two exceptions aside -- have normally scored in international contests where creativity and intellect are tested. Many Indonesians, therefore, would no doubt agree with Minister of National Education Yahya Muhaimin when in his opening address at the convention he called for an overall improvement in quality where it matters and less emphasis on ideology and civic affairs.

Indonesians well realize that in this era of fierce global competition, the nation stands to lose the contest unless it sets aside many of those secondary subjects and puts a good deal more emphasis on the sciences -- applied sciences in particular. Regrettably, under the previous regime education was made to serve the political interests of the power holders and any progress made was measured in terms of quantity, rather than quality, such as numbers of schools constructed or school-going children.

Therefore, Yahya's concern for "a substantial improvement in the quality of elementary education", as well as for universities, deserves to be lauded. "Elementary and secondary school students," the minister said, "do not need too many lessons on ideology or civic affairs. They need a dynamic curriculum that matches their needs and contains lessons that can make them master basic knowledge and science."

Unfortunately, even that basic task is not easy to accomplish. Indonesia's education system has been neglected or made subject to other interests for too long to be rapidly improved. An improvement in elementary and secondary education levels, for example, must begin with a substantial improvement in the education of teachers.

Even if begun immediately -- and many observers doubt it can be done -- it would take many years for the improvements at the teachers college level to bear fruit. Many more years must transpire from that point on to the time when Indonesia's primary and secondary schools would pass their first "improved" graduates. Obviously, it could take perhaps a generation or more for society to reap the benefits of the program.

Cost is another factor that has to be reckoned with. Quality education does not come cheap. Experts believe about 25 percent of the annual state budget should be set aside for education, as compared to the current less-than 10 percent.

Until the ways and means are found to provide the money, the nation will have to rely on the few "elite" schools to deliver the quality graduates society needs. In the meantime, the principle of equal opportunity for all in the field of education must be upheld as much as possible by providing scholarships for bright but needy children and youths.

Hopefully, in not too long a time, the overall quality of education in Indonesia can thus be raised. It may take some time, but at least the problem has been identified. What remains is the need to muster the rationality and the political will needed to bring about the changes.