Should We Resist Neoliberalism in Education?
Resistance to neoliberalism in education requires examining local, national, and global perspectives to build a higher-quality national education system. From a local perspective, neoliberalism in education must be criticised if it ignores culture, local wisdom, regional languages, and the values of mutual cooperation that form the identity of communities and schools. From a national perspective, the education system must remain based on Pancasila, the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, and national education goals, so that education is not reduced merely to a means of producing economically competitive human resources. Meanwhile, from a global perspective, education must prepare students for developments in science, technology, and the world economy without losing commitment to human rights, socio-ecological justice, sustainability, and peace.
Therefore, what must be resisted is not openness to innovation, markets, or global cooperation, but the dominance of neoliberal logic when the values of efficiency, competition, and economic profit displace the purpose of education as a process of holistic humanisation. The national education system needs to build a balance between global competitiveness, national identity, and strengthening local communities to produce individuals who are excellent, as well as cultured, of good character, and responsible towards others and the environment.
Resistance to the dominance of neoliberal logic in education can begin in a simple classroom. Teachers bring hope to life, not just chase targets. Schools nurture solidarity, not just competition. Students learn to cooperate, not to defeat one another. Achievement is still valued, but compassion must not be abandoned. Knowledge must serve life, and technology must strengthen humanity. True education cultivates a sensitive heart, a critical mind, and hands ready to work for others. The future is not built by the market alone; it is built by whole human beings, by teachers who faithfully guide, families who instil love, and communities who believe that every child is a gift, not a statistic. Therefore, education must remain a home for hope, safeguarding dignity, nurturing freedom, and fighting for justice, with love for one another remaining the most important lesson.
Neoliberalism is an economic, political, and social paradigm that places market mechanisms as the main principle for organising public life, including education, health, and public services. According to David Harvey, neoliberalism is a theory of political-economic practice that proposes human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterised by strong private property rights, free markets, and free trade, with the state’s role limited to creating and preserving such a framework. Philip Mirowski views neoliberalism not merely as economic policy but as an intellectual project that seeks to reshape society so that every aspect of life is subjected to the logic of market competition and efficiency. Meanwhile, Wendy Brown explains that neoliberalism transforms citizens into economic actors valued by their productivity, competitiveness, and market worth, thereby marginalising democratic values, solidarity, and the public interest. Thus, according to these experts, neoliberalism is not just an economic system but a way of thinking that extends market logic into nearly all dimensions of human life.
Neoliberalism teaches that education is a commodity. Schools are seen as markets, students as customers, and teachers are measured by numbers. Knowledge is calculated as an investment, and human values gradually fade. Yet education was not born to be traded; it is a space for growth, a place where the heart learns to love truth and the mind finds wisdom. Therefore, resisting neoliberalism does not mean rejecting progress, but rather rejecting a system where human dignity is lost to the logic of profit.
The concrete forms of neoliberal grammar in education appear in the use of terms, ways of thinking, and practices that adopt market logic in the administration of education. Schools are understood as service providers, students as customers, teachers as service providers, and education as an investment to enhance economic competitiveness. Educational success is then measured more by indicators such as efficiency, productivity, competition, performance targets, rankings, accreditation, test scores, benchmarking, output, outcome, return on investment, and employability, while the dimensions of character building, wisdom, solidarity, social care, and moral growth become secondary concerns. In this grammar, terms like human capital, market relevance, customer satisfaction, performance management, and school branding increasingly dominate educational discourse. As a result, the language of education shifts from a vocabulary that emphasises human dignity, liberation, and the formation of responsible citizens towards one that highlights economic efficiency, competition, and market value, so that the language itself helps shape how society understands the purpose of education.
Everyday resistance consists of small, simple, and consistent actions carried out in educational practice to preserve human values amidst the strong logic of neoliberalism. Unlike political resistance, policy advocacy, or social movements that seek to change the system at a structural level, this resistance takes place in daily interactions within the classroom, school, and community.