The dilemma with compulsory education

Darmaningtyas, Center for the Betterment of Education, Jakarta

The nine-year compulsory education program was launched in 1994 with optimism that it would be fully implemented by 2004. Several indicators supported that optimism, such as the country's high economic growth rate, the government's financial capacity and the spirit of other stakeholders.

However, the economic crisis that struck in July 1997 ended up as a multicrisis. As a result, all parties, including the government, were uncertain about when the program would be implemented. The World Bank, which only focuses on macro-aspects, was incapable of predicting real conditions, while the communities involved were just ignored.

Now under the sway of regional autonomy, the nine-year compulsory education program is becoming ever more problematic, with a questionable future as the central government and regional administrations shirk their responsibilities.

No clear division of authority has been drawn up to determine which party is most accountable for the completion of this program: the central government or the regions. The central government always claims it has turned over educational affairs to the regions, through the General Allocation Fund (DAU) it provides. The regions keep complaining about the DAU, describing it as too small to finance education.

The various issues now accumulating could further worsen the national education system, and unless these issues are promptly dealt with the nine-year compulsory education program could become trapped in limbo.

These issues include the numerous damaged elementary school buildings, teacher shortages, limited facilities and a dwindling public capacity and willingness to finance education. Conversely, some state primary schools and private secondary schools are closed due to enrollment downturns.

These issues are playing out all over the country, in both rural and urban areas. The root cause of this educational quandary lies in bureaucracy and funding.

Buildings are the biggest issue, with no less than half of the primary schools (SDs) in Indonesia being damaged in various degrees of severity.

Based on research on elementary education in Madura, with the support of the aid organization Oxfam GB, the situation on this East Java island may reflect the general situation of basic education outside Java.

Administratively, Madura belongs to the territory of East Java, with Surabaya, the second largest city in the country, the provincial capital. Yet Madura's primary education is no better than that in other regions, with poor participation and achievements, poor infrastructure and facilities, and a considerable scarcity of teachers.

Crumbling school buildings, acknowledged by local executive and legislative officials, can be found in Bangkalan regency, where 15 percent to 20 percent, or 101 to 135 of 678 primary schools, have collapsed. Repairing these buildings would cost over Rp 100 million, and the local administration can only repair five to seven primary schools a year.

In Sampang regency, 400 of 589 primary school buildings are damaged and 80 other schools now have no buildings, forcing schoolchildren to attend classes in villagers' homes or mosques; in Pamekasan regency, 40 percent of schools are severely damaged.

In all, ruined school buildings are easier to find than well maintained ones.

Sampang has sustained the most neglect because its political leaders have been in constant conflict, leading to neglect in educational matters. Meanwhile, Sampang is Madura's regency with the greatest number of refugees from Sampit, thereby increasing its socio-economic burden.

Madura also faces a shortage of teachers, with many primary schools having only three to four plus a school principal. Ideally, one primary school should have six teachers, two more teachers for religion and sports, a principal and an errand boy, totaling 10 staff members in all.

In one public elementary school in Pancur, Ketapang, Sampang regency, a lack of teachers has led to a delivery man joining the teaching staff.

The poor condition of buildings and the scarcity of teachers have prompted locals to send their children to Islamic schools, or madrasah. But the educational quality in the madrasah is not far different because of limited facilities, which force children to write on classroom floors. And most of the teachers are secondary school graduates, thus failing to meet the qualifications for the primary level of madrasah.

But teachers at this level are adequate and observe discipline, in contrast to those at public elementary schools. However, the level of general knowledge is higher in public schools, given the greater weight placed on religious education in Madura's madrasah.