Indonesia's education

Indonesia's education

Annisa Eska Larasati (14), Class 3T/YPII An-Nisaa Sr. High School

A country has to realize how important education is to move
forward. Indonesia seems not to have realized this, which makes
our country move backward.

A long time ago, Malaysia recruited teachers from our country,
but now we are far behind Malaysia [in education].

To make Indonesia's education grow again, we need to invest
some money into it. The money has to be invested wisely and not
corrupted. Some people think that giving money to [meet]
teachers' needs is [wasting] money. We have to change that kind
of thinking [and realize] that giving money to teachers is an
investment. We have to make sure that teachers have a good life
and appropriate teaching [background/qualification], that schools
have good facilities and that all people have the same
opportunity to attend schools.

The national curriculum often changes, which shows that
Indonesia doesn't have a proper basis in education. If we don't
even have the basis, how can we move forward? I think Indonesia
has to have one correct basis and stick to it.

"Education has to contain three things, heart, brain and
skill" -- that's what Malik Fadjar [minister of national
education under Megawati Soekarnoputri] said. So at a school, we
have to give students things that have do with all three. We
can't just push their brains to work and forget about how
important feelings and skills are.

Now, the government takes too much of a role in education.
Hey, this is the globalization era. We have to let the public do
what they want, we just have to make a standard for them. The
standard has to be made by an independent organization that is
run by experts.

To make program wajib belajar 9 tahun [mandatory elementary
and junior high school education] successful, the government has
to make elementary and junior high school free of charge, just
like in developed countries, because today 30 percent of all
children do not continue their education through junior high
school.

We, the Indonesian people, can't just blame the government for
what happened to our education. We have to take a part in
improving our education, because this is our country, and not
only the government's country.