Lamenting our education

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.