Reforming the RI educational system

Werner Kiby, Entrepreneur, Bali

In an increasingly globalized world, Indonesian students and workers must meet international levels of education and labor skills. Even international schools around Indonesia seem to lack consideration that students must improve their knowledge in a world which is more and more dominated by information technologies, multilingual communication and international cooperation. Yet the situation is far worse for Indonesians.

The Jakarta Post recently cited a comment by Dyah Paramawartiningsih, head of the research center at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, that many university graduates, even with PhDs, are not yet ready to meet simple standards because they are neither able to communicate fluently at least in English nor to use computers efficiently.

Reforming education would first have to take into account how Indonesians are educated. Even if someone appreciates the often cited discipline of Indonesian students and their respect for teachers and parents, this obedience may hinder in the long run the creation of self-motivated and self-confident students who are able to become decision-makers and leaders of new opinions.

Further, most Indonesian students (and teachers) lack a realistic approach to the demands of working life, and the needs and consequences, for their ongoing education and skills. The main requirements are: Teamwork, no work without a plan, ability to cope with stress, punctuality, responsibility, flexibility, honesty, diligence, a clean environment in and outside the place of work or study, knowledge of foreign mentalities, and openness for self-criticism, and even strong criticism, by others.

Teachers lack solid education in their subjects, working experience and communication competence at least in English and computer skills.

It also seems that in all subjects taught in the schools, theory overwhelms practice, which may be one reason why students and teachers often are unmotivated to fulfill their duties.

The public schools and universities in Indonesia are not sufficiently equipped with the facilities to meet national and international challenges. Beside qualified and fairly paid teachers they need at least language training and computer centers. If the school system here does not begin to provide this minimum on conditions things will keep going on as usual, which means worse.

And when the more lucky students apply, after graduating, for further training in one of the professional centers to achieve international certifications, they are not well prepared to succeed. This compounds the financial problems and the enormous restrictions caused by the Indonesian bureaucracy.

Things are already much worse now with the economic crisis and sharply rising figures of unemployed people in Indonesia -- including citizens or residents from foreign countries.

Unemployment was last esimated at 40 million, which will likely soon increase. Meanwhile the number of the growing number of jobless foreign residents all around the country, and the number of their children who need qualified skills, is still unclear.

Most of them are children from bi-national marriages, half Indonesians, half Westerners, from all countries of Europe and the United States, either with a foreign or a Indonesian passport.

Their parents once had their own business or had been hired mostly by foreign companies which closed their doors due to the crisis. Yet they have decided to live for a long period, if not forever in Indonesia, despite the growing difficulties.

Indonesia may face a similar problem like Germany -- if it is not willing to deal with the fact of immigrants, legal or illegal. And of course Indonesia will not be able to provide any help to integrate or give financial support to this growing foreign community. They are forced to help themselves find adequate schools and jobs.

These foreign residents are going to compete for the remaining jobs in Indonesia with the lower educated Indonesians.

Indonesia faces another challenge: It signed in 2001 an international agreement to liberalize the labor market and to open it to highly educated foreign applicants.

According to The Jakarta Post, in Indonesia only some 4 percent of the total labor force (over 97 million people) are working as professionals and managers. But even these highly educated workers are not ready to compete with foreign professionals and managers.

Hence the response cannot be more protectionism against foreign workers, as suggested by some analysts who propose to delay the liberalization of the labor market.

Indonesia should instead open the country for more foreigners with high education and working skills. If Indonesians want to compete with foreigners in all fields of skills and work like language and communication competence, information technology, industrial production and professional management, then they must cooperate with foreigners and utilize them until Indonesians are equal to or even better than their teachers.

A crisis always generates new opportunities -- and now there is a big opportunity for Indonesians and parts of the residents, to create a new model of school education, closer to the real world and to international levels. They could be run by Indonesians and foreigners together for mutual benefit.

To convince the authorities one would firstly need to tell them how to finance these schools and secondly to secure the jobs of legions of employees in the education field.

But as there are thousands of schools and universities not used during 12 hours to 16 hours every day, facilities could fairly easily be provided for new schools. Officials have said that every second school in some islands should be used for other purposes or else they should be demolished due to the lack of teachers and money!

There are also thousands (or more) jobless or miserably paid teachers and maybe the same number of demotivated employees across the whole education field. There should be enough resources to recruit the best of them as staff for appropriate schools.

Quite a lot of teachers could also be recruited from the foreign communities on each island as there are probably many who would really wish to contribute to their culture, knowledge and experiences to Indonesian hosts and their own families -- paid or unpaid.

And there could be many volunteers and trainee teachers in work experience programs from abroad to support and enrich school projects by giving them the possibility to join an international team, face new challenges -- and live a while in an exotic country.

The writer earlier taught literature and philosophy at a German College.