Minister urges quality improvement in education

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of National Education Yahya Muhaimin opened the fourth National Education Convention on Tuesday calling for improvements in quality and less stress on subjects such as ideology and civic affairs.

"My main concern now is for a substantial improvement in the quality of elementary and secondary education. The same thing goes for universities," Yahya said after opening the four-day convention in Hotel Indonesia.

Yahya said that elementary and secondary education should concentrate on three main elements, namely morals, writing and reading, as well as basic science such as mathematics.

"Elementary and secondary school pupils do not need too many lessons on ideology or civic affairs. They need a dynamic curriculum that matches their needs and contains lessons that can make them master basic knowledge and science," Yahya said.

Yahya also said he planned to introduce English lessons to fourth grade elementary students.

"But to be frank we don't want to change the curriculum too much because it will further burden students and parents as well as teachers and schools. It will cost us extra jobs, too," he added.

The convention has attracted some 800 teachers and educational experts, including prominent figures such as Juwono Sudarsono, Sapadi Djoko Damono, Hasballah M. Saad, Adi Sasono and Winarno Surakhmad.

"We expect this event to come up with strong and concrete recommendations on how to deal with educational problems.

"Education must be considered as an important political issue and treated as a national investment," said Sutjipto, chairman of the event and rector of the State University of Jakarta.

Investment

Education experts said on Monday that the failure of the national educational system was due to people's misperception of education as a public service and not as an investment that could yield dividends in the future,

"That's why the government only provides 9 percent of the national budget as every rupiah spent is not expected to be returned," said Ace Suryadi, a researcher at the Ministry of National Education's Research and Development Department.

The percentage, he said, was much lower than neighboring countries like Malaysia and the Philippines which allocate more than 20 percent of their national budget for education.

As the result, he added, Indonesia lacked qualified human resources and the country had to spend some US$5 billion to hire foreign employees annually.

Ace argued that the educational system should be regarded as an economic sector and a productive investment which not only produced income for the country, but also high quality human resources.

Therefore, he said, the government should invest as much money as it could and find ways for as much of the capital as possible to be returned.

Ace said the government had also neglected to develop informal education, such as courses.

"In several countries, two-thirds of the educational budget goes to informal education, while here, it's the opposite," he said during a seminar here on educational reform held by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies on Monday.

Informal education, according to Ace, is very important in producing vocational training and skilled personnel.

Education observer Hafid Abbas, who also spoke at the seminar, said there should be greater impetus placed on gaining public participation and involvement.

"The most important thing is to end the discrimination in the system," he said, pointing to the segregation which occurs between rich and poor students through public schools, private schools and Islamic schools (madrasah).

Hafid also pointed to the case of the prominent Islamic Senior High School in Gontor in East Java.

"Graduates can't go straight to a non-Islamic or general university. They have to take an accreditation test first, whereas their diplomas are acceptable in universities in Canada, Europe and the Middle East," he added.

Other speakers also noted the need for the Ministry of National Education to enroll more qualified people within its ranks.

"The ministry lacks educational experts. Look at the Ministry of Health -- from the top officials to the lower ones, they are all doctors," said M. Surya from the Indonesian Teachers Union (PGRI).(09/edt)