Scholar slams 'link and match' concept

JAKARTA (JP): The government's program linking schools and universities to the needs of the industrial world goes against the basic concept of education, literature expert Umar Kayam says.

The "link and match" program has created partitions in Indonesia's world of education, the professor of literature at Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University was quoted by Antara as saying.

"This program forces a child to study and master one field only," Umar said at a ceremony to launch a book by Eko Budihardjo, the dean of the School of Technology at Semarang's Diponegoro University, Monday.

"We really should ask, why are we teaching our children?" he said, adding that the basic concept of education was to instill a strong general knowledge foundation in children from primary school to university.

The "link and match" program, the brainchild of Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro, was launched four years ago in response to complaints from industry about the poor quality of Indonesian school and university graduates.

Under the scheme, the government has introduced measures such as revamping school curricula and introducing sandwich courses at vocational schools, streamlining the number of study programs at universities and opening more polytechnics.

Wardiman said in Padang yesterday that the "link and match" program is also aimed at preventing the recurrence of unemployed university graduates because no one wanted their skills.

Speaking after installing Marlis Rahman as the new Andalas University rector, the minister said Indonesia should build 150 more polytechnics in the next 25 years, Antara reported.

Umar said he feared for Indonesian education, with the "link and match" program coming on top of the frequent changes to national education curricula in schools and universities.

"This partitioning is detrimental to us all," he said.

Indonesian education should really produce people with general knowledge, not specialists, he said.

Because children were encouraged to take specialized studies from primary school until university, graduates tended to lack perspective in academic and humanity matters, he said.

This is the case with virtually everyone, whether they graduated in medicine, technology, economy, literature or another field, he said.

Even within schools of literature, what is taught in one program can be so different to another, that students tend not to communicate with one another, he said.

Some so-called language experts were not even familiar with Indonesian literature because it was not required reading, Umar said.

He said that what had been known as liberal arts studies had disappeared in Indonesia because of the specialization introduced from senior high school on.

"Ideally, all the basic subjects should be taught so students are prepared to face social and cultural realities when they graduate," Umar said. (emb)