Lamenting our education

When Hong Kong-based Asia Magazine printed a list of the best Asian universities last year Indonesians were not offended to find their institutes of higher learning ranked below those of our neighboring countries.

Comparing Indonesian education success stories to those of advanced countries is unfair, but finding Indonesian universities placed below those of Malaysia, a country which until the 1970s still sent a lot of students to study various disciplines here, was quite shocking. The list named the Institute of Technology of Bandung as the best school in Indonesia, but it was still far below the Kuala Lumpur University of Malaya and was only one point above the National University of Malaysia. According to the list, the five best Asian universities are found in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The answer to this problem might lay in the reality that many of us had been pretending not to notice that something was amiss in our education system because, with the budget held responsible, there was nothing we could do to address it. How can one expect a quality education when lecturers have to moonlight to make the ends meet, some asked.

While no light was seen at the end of the tunnel, the people realized that the nation had still to focus its attention on economic development. So it was nothing remarkable to hear complaints about the lack of an academic culture, academic freedom, scientific productivity, tolerance to academic debate, the link and match concept, etc. This has all been made worse by the feudal mentality of many lecturers.

The proof of low academic quality is still clear in daily life. Although there are a great number of able academics around us, the poor capability shown by many college graduates to hold even a simple job in the public administration is painful to witness.

The authorities seem to have realized the urgency of overcoming this problem, which is a decisive part of the nation's future, where the competitiveness of our human resources among neighbors will be of vital importance.

In relation to this, we can fully understand the recent government decision to open the door to foreign universities wishing to operate here, because they will help improve the quality of our institutes of higher learning and their graduates. We also believe that the green light for the use of English as the medium to teach up to 50 percent of the subjects in any university, and in the teaching of mathematics and natural sciences at junior and senior high schools, as a far-sighted measure.

Aside from our solid sense of patriotism, we have to admit that we still need time before our national language is capable of being a language of science and high-technology. Our university graduates starkly reveal their lack of ability to write in the national language let alone English.

Beyond all these points of view, one should bear in mind that the national education system here is not so simple. A complete overhaul in the way we see the education system is needed. We need to start from the elementary level because there are too many burdensome subjects for youngsters along with indoctrination in civic topics which could be replaced with more practical subjects.