Indonesian education system needs total reform: Minister
By Rita A. Widiadana
JAKARTA (JP): Eighteen months may not be enough time for Indonesia's minister of education and culture to unravel immense problems facing the country's education world.
When 57-year-old international relations scholar Juwono Sudarsono stepped into his gray-painted office in May l998, people might have expected too much from this soft-spoken man.
Considered by many as a competent and, more importantly, a "clean" and decent figure, it was hoped Juwono would revamp an already chaotic education system and improve the tainted image of his ministry.
Juwono was vice chairman of the National Defense Institute. He was also dean of the University of Indonesia's School of Social Science and School of Political Science.
Before he joined the Reform Cabinet as minister of education and culture, Juwono was state minister of environment.
A few weeks ago, Juwono publicly disclosed cases of collusion and corruption in his ministry, a legacy from the New Order regime. He also announced a revision to the controversial l994 national curriculum.
After 15 months into his tenure, Juwono has revealed the latest progress of an implementation of rescue programs under the government's social safety net for education to maintain school enrollment levels and to reduce the skyrocketing number of school dropouts because of the ongoing crisis.
All of his ministry's efforts have, unfortunately, been perceived by the public as just half-hearted actions to win their hearts and political make-up to smarten up the rough face of the present government. Following is an excerpt of a recent interview held in his office.
Question: How do you view public criticism over the working performance of your ministry during the last 15 months?
Juwono: I admit that I really cannot satisfy or meet the demands of every interested person or group. I also cannot please everybody in handling various educational issues, including the school enrollment system, curriculum and many others. The problems in our education system have been tremendous and very complicated.
Within only 18 months, I don't think it appropriate to create achievable programs and targets. I have to be pragmatic and realistic because we are in an emergency period.
The first thing to do was consolidate with my staff, related agencies and donor institutions to carry out crash programs to rescue school-age children and to secure education activities which have been hard hit by the current multidimensional crisis.
I have stated three top priorities in the rescue programs.
First, to rescue the country's potential dropouts. Before the crisis, the number of school dropouts was very high. We are really worried that the number of dropouts has skyrocketed to an alarming level because of the current crisis.
Our first effort is to save them, to provide them with scholarships and to give technical and financial assistance to schools across Indonesia's 27 provinces.
The second priority is to maintain school enrollments for all levels of education, from elementary to higher education.
Yet, stress has been placed especially on junior high school enrollments. We consider this level of education economically, socially and politically imperative.
Economically, junior high school graduates have reached legal employment age. Around 60 percent of the country's workforce are junior high school graduates.
With such an educational background, one can be expected to be ready to enter the employment market in fields of agriculture, industry, infrastructure and other physical activities.
For the government, it is also urgent to maintain the enrollment of junior school students for social and political reasons.
Students who have graduated from junior high school are believed to posses a basic political understanding and to be aware of the social situation as well as their civil, economical and political rights.
These are some of the important elements needed to curb any possible social and political conflicts in an already heated condition.
The third priority is to increase people's understanding that education is an important investment for Indonesia to have highly qualified human resources and an open and democratic society.
Q: Do you think that all crash programs are working properly with the existing financial support?
J: All programs are still underway. I cannot say that everything is OK. In August l998 the government, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other donor institutions agreed to set aside Rp 1.7 trillion as a social safety net fund for education.
Previously, the World Bank also provided US$500 million in loans to support education activities during the crisis. This was the largest and most important loan delivered by the institution for educational purposes.
We are working hard to properly managed the funds in transparent and professional ways in order to continue supporting the operation of thousand of schools, from elementary to university level.
Of course, we cannot save them all. Our main targets are the poorest among the poor in the country's remote places and in urban areas.
Q: Like other ministries or institutions which receive large amounts of social safety net funds and other forms of financial assistance, there will always be wide opportunity for unscrupulous officials and individuals to misuse the funds. How is the situation in your office?
J: So far, about 20 percent to 25 percent of fund leakage has reportedly occurred in the implementation of the rescue programs because of inappropriate monitoring systems.
I admit it is quite hard to eliminate the leakage but we are trying our best to reduce it to a minimum.
This is the first time for us to perform rescue programs. The capability of human resources who manage the fund is different at every level. We have to distribute the fund nationwide to many schools, millions of students and teachers who badly need help. The leakage may take place somewhere during the disbursement and distribution process.
Q: Pressures to cancel social safety net education programs have been overwhelming in order to prevent misappropriation of funds...
J: I have received valuable input from various groups, including education experts, my friends from non-governmental organizations and from those who are concerned.
I am facing a dilemma. If I stop the programs, the fund will be saved and there will be no leakage, but you have to consider that millions of children desperately want to go to school or resume their schooling.
Q: Theoretically, all rescue programs seem to be perfect. But, in practice, the programs are confusing. For example, a school enrollment program for elementary level students or a disbursement of scholarship funds. Parents and students found that all government promises to help them were empty...
J: Among the rescue programs is the free enrollment program for elementary school-aged children. We have instructed all state schools to accept students from poor families for the l999/2000 academic year, which started on July 19, without any payment being made.
Yet, we made the mistake of announcing it during the school holiday (May and June l999). Due to a lack of information and coordination between the ministry's regional offices and local schools, many parents were disappointed because they could not register their children for school.
The registration period has been extended. All schools are still open for new enrollments.
Q: During the crisis, the government also promised to eliminate school admission fees and other financial requirements. Yet, many schools still require parents to pay a large sum of money, to buy uniforms and books from the schools...
J: Under the coordination of provincial offices, we have called school principals or other officials responsible for these violations. People are expected to report any incident in connection with this problem to the ministry's local office.
Q: Recently, you announced cases of corruption and collusion in your ministry. How could you just mention a very small number of cases?
J: The newly announced cases were of high profile corruption incidents which were audited and controlled under the supervision of Coordinating Minister for Economics and Development Hartarto.
There are many more, maybe thousands of incidents of corruption, in my ministry and in other ministries as well.
The Ministry of Education and Culture overviews 2.2 million employees around the country. It has received and managed funds for a myriad of education projects. Violation, corruption and collusion practices could easily occur because of a lack of control and inefficient funding and project management.
Q: All corruption and collusion practices have contributed to producing low-quality education, students and teachers. What can you do to eradicate these irresponsible practices?
J: The quality of education depends on several important factors, including adequate funds, coherent strategies, a good curriculum and a strong commitment from all related parties.
Indonesia spends only 7 percent of the state budget on education. Ideally, we should allocate between 20 percent and 25 percent of the state budget for education.
Corruption and collusion practices have certainly reduced this limited education fund designated for the improvement of the country's education facilities and the welfare of teachers.
Q: The controversial l994 national curriculum has also been blamed for a deterioration in the country's education system. You have just made slight changes on the contrary to the public demand to dismiss this burdensome curriculum...
J: We deliberately made limited changes to the l994 curriculum because we are preparing a nationwide education blueprint to be used as guidance for all education policies and programs.
Q: What is the education blueprint?
J: I would say that our education system needs total reform. It is no secret that the current system has been very rigid, stressing merely on intellectual capability.
An overloaded curriculum, uninteresting teaching methods and a passive learning process have contributed to shape the current school environment.
It is high time for us to change the concept of education from teacher-oriented to student-oriented. Don't always cram our children's minds with mathematics, history and other subjects which sometimes are beyond our children's capabilities to absorb.
They need other lessons and knowledge to shape their emotional and social skills; derived, for instance, from arts and sports activities which have long-been neglected.
The planned blueprint will also comprise guidelines for implementing sustainable educational policies and programs with clear directions and coherent legal frameworks within a certain period.
This blueprint will be used by every minister of education and his or her staff to consistently implement all programs in accordance with the written guidelines.
People have long been confused and bored by the frequent and incoherent education policies.
Q: It seems a little too late for Indonesia to have such a blueprint. We are already lagging behind neighboring countries in fostering our education system...
J: It is unfair to compare Indonesia's education system with those applied in other countries because of different social, cultural, historical and demographic conditions.
Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, for example, have impressive education systems.
Demographically, it will be easier for the Singaporean government to impose education programs on its small population. The country has spent a lot of money and its leaders have a strong commitment to education. Thailand and Malaysia benefit from more homogeneous ethnic populations.
Indonesia, on the other hand, has more than 200 million people with diverse ethnic backgrounds. In the past 30 years, we have been bickering among ourselves. We have been wasting our time, energy and money to deal with social and political tensions so we don't have enough time to seriously think about education and human resources development.
It will be very important for the Indonesian people to have a president with a strong commitment to education. He or she must show to the people that education is of primary importance.
The government and the people must really strengthen their commitments to education, and also to open their wallets because good education is expensive.