More access to higher education crucial

Maddaremmeng A. Panennungi, Researcher, School of Economics, University of Indonesia, Jakarta

One key factor of the war on poverty is equality of opportunity for higher education for students from low-income families. Most of the debate of economic policies have focused on one area: How to attract the capital inflow again to recreate the golden years of growth.

Unfortunately, that capital has gone to other countries that offer more promising profit -- China, Vietnam, the former Soviet Union and possibly Afghanistan. Krugman, writing in 1994, was right: The Asian economic miracle has only one explanation -- masses of capital and labor. The only country that will survive is the country that makes the greatest effort in developing human capital to absorb science and technology during the cold war.

In the war on poverty, education should help create equal opportunities in the market economy.

Basic education from the elementary to senior high level for all citizens should be at the top of the government's list. Higher education is more important to further master science and technology, but the problem is the limited budget of both the government and individual families. The government should thus be active in promoting equal opportunity for higher education.

How would one select the "right student" to be supported by government or other institutions? There is a lesson from the United States in this regard. In 1965 part of then president Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty was the Higher Education Act. Instead of rewards for military service, phased labor market reentry for returning veterans, or incentives for academically talented youth, the primary focus of the government was addressing inequalities by improving higher educational opportunities for disadvantaged people.

The disadvantaged were identified as women, blacks and Hispanics, and the poor. The result of focusing on these groups was improved participation in higher education.

In Indonesia, we need to focus on students, particularly women, from poor families. Most poor students are male, reflecting a culture where most households tend to prioritize their sons' education.

Further, focus must be placed on the results of imbalanced development in the regions, which has created unequal access to higher education, particularly in the eastern provinces.

For decades, centralization has led to the situation where reasonably good education is only found at the provincial level and not in the smaller regions. Ethnic minorities must also be considered in identifying those with a lack of access to education, in particular higher education.

Some universities have solved the question of inequality of access to higher education by scouting for students of merit through their programs of "tracing interest and talent" and equal opportunity for study, which has reached various provinces.

But this method might create inequalities within one region. Most of the chosen students would still probably come from better off families.

Concentrating on women and less developed regions particularly in the eastern areas, in identifying poor students who need help in access to higher education, would better address the problem of inequality.