More access to higher education crucial

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.