In Memoriam: Father Drost, respected educationist dies, aged 79
A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Amid polemics on the need for a national exam, Indonesia mourned the passing away of well-known educator Josephus Ignatius Gerardus Maria Drost, better known as Father Drost, on Saturday in Semarang, Central Java.
Drost, who was born in Batavia -- the name for Jakarta during the Dutch colonial era -- on Aug. 1, 1925, died following prostate illness, at Elisabeth Hospital, Semarang, Central Java.
Drost was critical of the national exam, which is aimed at standardizing education levels in elementary, junior and senior high schools.
He suggested the exam should not be held nationally or be used as the only criterion for students to enter higher education.
The exam has been sharply criticized for its use in practice to boost the grades of less intelligent students and suppress the grades of smarter ones, to allow as many students to pass as possible.
Despite widespread criticism, the government, with approval from the House of Representatives, decided to continue with the final exam in the same format this year.
Drost's concern over the national exam was very much in line with his consistency in developing education in Indonesia.
His thoughts on education are clearly discernible in one of his books, Sekolah: Mengajar Atau Mendidik (School: To Teach Or To Educate), published in 1998.
He said schools were not the institution primarily responsible for education; instead, parents and society in general had a crucial role to play, adding that cooperation between schools, parents and society was important in the development of education.
Drost, the son of a Dutch couple, H.A.J Drost and M.R.L. Eckmann, completed his basic and intermediate education in the Netherlands. He once studied at Nan University, Amsterdam, before it was closed during World War II.
After the war, Drost returned to Indonesia in Feb. 1946 and continued his studies in physics at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).
Drost became interested in teaching since the time he was a student at ITB, as he then became an assistant lecturer at the institute. After graduating from the ITB in 1957, he taught at Sanata Darma Teaching Institute in Yogyakarta.
Drost replaced Father N. Driyarkara as rector of the teaching institute on Jan. 1, 1968.
Drost retired as rector in 1977. Due to his expertise and long-established dedication to education, he was installed as principal of Kanisius high school, Menteng, Central Jakarta, that same year.