JP/9/YUSUF

JP/9/YUSUF

Romo Mangunwijaya's dreams for education

Yusup Priyasudiarja
Contributor
Yogyakarta

Impian dari Yogyakarta (Dreams from Yogyakarta) by Y.B.
Mangunwijaya, Penerbit Buku Kompas, Feb. 2003, 308 pp

Romo Mangun was widely known as an architect, priest,
intellectual, social worker and novelist and also regarded by
many as a fighter for the liberation of the poor from stupidity,
powerlessness and injustice.

He toiled to help poor children and people in repressive
situations to be independent and to act on their own choices. He
contributed his ideas on crucial issues, especially on education,
democracy and politics. Born in Ambarawa in 1929 and involved in
the struggle for independence as a young soldier, he then
dedicated his whole life to the development of this country
through education.

During the independence struggle, Romo Mangun was deeply
touched by Major Isman's speech during a reunion of Tentara
Pelajar Indonesia/TPI (Indonesian student battalions) in Malang
in the early 1950s. Isman said that the real heroes of the
revolution in the independence struggle were not soldiers but the
people who suffered during the war.

Since then, he decided to contribute his life to others,
especially the poor and weak. He entered a seminary and became a
priest in 1959. His service as a priest outside the confines of
the church hierarchy in Kali Code, Salam, Kedung Ombo,
Gunungkidul and Mangunan parishes, brought him into direct
contact with the poor. His death, four years ago, was a great
loss to the country but his vision for humane education still
remains inspirational.

His valuable ideas on education have been collected in this
book, which consists of 39 essays published in Kompas in the
period 1974 to 1998. Even though some of his essays were written
before 1980, they are still relevant to today's educational
issues. This book, then, can serve as the heritage of his great
ideas on education for the young generation.

In most of his features, Romo Mangun, the author of the novel
Burung-burung Manyar argues that basic education in elementary
school plays a significant role in the whole process of
education. The quality of basic education will determine the
quality of higher education. As children are by nature
explorative, creative and curious, teachers should provide
students with activities to stimulate them to be explorative
learners and critical thinkers.

In reality, however, our education has "killed" these natures.
Our education system does not boost students' creativity. Their
creativity is hampered through the learning-teaching process,
which does not treat students as the subject of education but as
small political groupings. In other words, students are still
regarded as objects or containers, which are filled with a huge
range of information.

Besides, the learning-teaching process in class is mostly
carried out in the form of wordy lecturing, and students tend to
be passive-receptive. Hence students are likely to merely
memorize facts but learn nothing.

Romo Mangun notes that students should be stimulated to be
more critical, to ask a lot of questions, to observe their
surroundings, to analyze data and find their own answers. As
basic education is very vital, teachers in elementary schools
should also be creative, well-educated and qualified.

They should not be the one who determine everything in class
but serve as a close friend, brother and counselor for their
students. Besides, they should not view the naughtiness of
children at a narcissistic age as a negative aspect of their
development, but as a creative process of learning.

Jean Piaget, a Swiss philosopher and psychologist, best-known
for his pioneering work on the development of intelligence in
children, shows the stages of cognitive development of children.
He believes that children are not empty vessels to be filled with
knowledge but active builders of knowledge: little scientists who
are constantly creating and testing their own theories of the
world.

Children are basically explorative; they are the ones who
teach themselves. Hence their learning process can be optimally
achieved through active exploration. It seems that Romo Mangun
was inspired by Jean Piaget's ideas on developmental psychology.

Besides, all children are basically clever, but it is the
teaching-learning process in class that makes them slow, as
illustrated by Jean Jacques Rousseau's "God makes all things
good; man meddles with them and they become evil."

One of Romo Mangun's strong criticisms on education rests on
the educational system. He points out that we have oppressed (not
to mention "killed") our 30 million children every day through
our educational system in formal schools, in which methodology,
evaluation systems and management structure inhibit the
creativity, spontaneity and explorative natures of children in
their learning process (p.48).

In our educational system, evaluation systems such as THB,
NEM, EBTA, EBTANAS and many others, are considered the factors
that hamper the development of our education. The mushrooming of
courses (nonformal education) and the high interest of parents in
enrolling their children on courses indicate clearly the failure
of formal education in Indonesia.

Romo Mangun put his ideas on education into practice by
running an alternative elementary school, Dinamika Edukasi Dasar
(Basic Education Institute) in Mangunan, Yogyakarta. He applied
the curriculum used by other formal schools but modified it by
adding some subjects such as question formulation and music
lessons.

He thought that question formulation would stimulate students
to think logically and music lessons would be good for building a
sense of esthetics among students. The lessons at SD Mangunan are
designed according to students' cognitive development, as
elaborated by Jean Piaget.

Here, students are given the greatest opportunities to explore
and develop their creativity. SD Mangunan has become one of
examples of Romo Mangun's work on education, in which its
education system is children-oriented. He also highlights the
importance of language mastery among his students. According to
him, language is the key to grasping as much information as
possible and to comprehending any culture.

As a product of Dutch colonial education, Romo Mangun has
picked up some goods points on the colonial education system. He
points out that instead of the negative effects of Dutch
colonialism, we can learn positive things from their education.
Colonial teachers, with their humane educational background,
taught students to be gentle, to think progressively,
consistently and logically and to dared to say "waar of neit"
(right or wrong). Teachers in class do not only teach math,
history and science but also teach students to observe, to
analyze systematically and to draw conclusions critically and
systematically (p.103).

Hence the colonial education system incredibly manages to
produce good graduates having universal values, analytical
thinking and a strong character, such as Soekarno, Hatta,
Syahrir, Soetomo, Agoes Salim, Adam Malik, Maramis, etc.

In some of his essays, Romo Mangun also points out that our
government has not put education as the priority of development.
Compared with China, Indonesia has still been left behind in
education. In China, education has been a very vital aspect of
life. It does not only cover formal education but also nonformal
education within the context of life-long learning.

Education is carried out through TV, which can serve not only
as a medium of entertainment, but also of education. Despite the
apparently negative aspects of teaching, such as low salaries and
overbureaucratization of education systems, teachers in China are
still dedicated and have self-esteem. Education should be the
main concern of our government if we really want to build a great
nation.

In this book, there are at least three points highlighted by
Romo Mangun. First, it is hoped that there will be a law which
effectively protect children in all aspects of life from any
unfair treatment from other people, including parents and
teachers.

According to him, the quality of culture in one nation is
determined by the following determinant: how children are
protected, treated and improved naturally and culturally (p.112).
As the development of the nation is mainly determined by the
quality of its basic education, our education paradigm should be
directed more to students in elementary schools. Second, the
government should prioritize education in its development plans
by allocating more funds. The budget for education in our country
is still much lower than that of neighboring countries. Third, he
also suggests that nonformal and informal education also
contribute a lot to the development of this country. Hence, the
law on education should not only cover formal education but also
nonformal and informal education.

This book gives us a deeper insight into Romo Mangun's vision
and concern for education in Indonesia. Now it is our task to
continue his great work to build the nation through better
education.