The spirit behind Education Day

The spirit behind Education Day

By Mochtar Buchori

JAKARTA (JP): Today, educationists in Indonesia commemorate
National Education Day. To the younger generation, the words
"national education" might convey nothing special.

To them this term is just another tag for the word "national",
like "national anthem", "national flag", "national soccer team",
"national holiday", "national commissions", and so on. The
youngsters might therefore ask: What is so special about national
education, and what is really being commemorated?

To older Indonesians, however, this term has a special
meaning. The expression "national education" was coined by
educational pioneers before World War II to express a political
concept. National education was popularized in the early 1920s to
convey a political commitment. Indonesian educators used this
political concept to reject the educational system created by the
Dutch colonial government. National education was an alternative
to colonial education.

National education was not just a theoretical concept, it was
put into practice by founding national schools to instill strong
nationalism in Indonesia's youth. Through these schools students
were prepared to live as Indonesians, and not as colonial
subjects. National education was a integral part of the struggle
to achieve political independence.

Not surprisingly, the colonial government considered national
education politically dangerous. It then tried to paralyze
national schools by issuing a regulation to close the schools it
called "wilde schoolen" (wild schools).

The regulation, called "toezicht ordonantie", was an ordinance
to oversee unsubsidized private schools, and was decreed by
Governor General Kiewit de Jonge and validated on Oct. 1, 1932.

The resistance initiated and launched by the Ki Hajar
Dewantara of the Taman Siswa organization was able to freeze this
suppressive measure in 1933. The national schools were then
politically safe, making their development possible.

To express gratitude to these educational pioneers, National
Education Day was established. Remembering them might help
recapture their fighting and pioneering spirit, and make it part
of the present educational system.

To many Indonesians, National Education Day evokes the memory
of the late Ki Hajar Dewantara, who founded the Taman Siswa
educational organization on July 3, 1922.

Taman Siswa schools educated their students to become
Indonesians who are "free in their spirit, free in their
thinking, and free in their labor." Pupils were prepared to be
able to live as free persons in their own environment.

It was imperative that students knew first and foremost their
own cultural heritage and environment, and not that of the Dutch.
Even though modern knowledge, as a product of Western
civilization, was from the very beginning an essential part of
its educational program, it was always taught in a context that
was distinctly indigenous -- Javanese at that time.

It was in this particular respect that Taman Siswa schools
differed significantly from colonial schools, and also from
private schools whose very existence depended on consent and
support from the colonial government.

The basic principle of Taman Siswa was not to accept any
financial aid from the colonial government. The reasoning behind
this policy was that the education of Indonesian children is the
responsibility of the Indonesian people, and that the society
must do its utmost to shoulder this burden. Accepting financial
support from the colonial government would curtail the freedom to
develop an educational program entirely free from the meddling of
the colonial government.

The founding of Taman Siswa schools cannot be dissociated from
the criticism of Ki Hajar Dewantara against the philosophy and
practice of the colonial schools. Ki Hajar Dewantara's objections
were that the colonial schools were too elitist. Only a fraction
of Indonesia's youth could benefit from these colonial schools.
The majority of Indonesia's youth were left ignorant.

The colonial education program taught Indonesian pupils about
European, especially Dutch, society and civilization, but left
them ignorant of their own cultural heritage, problems and
potential. In some cases Indonesian pupils became alienated from
their own social and cultural environment because of this
colonial education. In the worst case they became unable to speak
their own language.

This cultural and social alienation made Indonesian pupils
insensitive to the suffering of the less-fortunate Indonesian
people, and also indifferent toward the ongoing social, economic
and political struggle.

Teaching these values to a large portion of the Indonesian
youth would certainly have gradually eroded any aspirations of
becoming an independent nation.

Independence could only be sustained if youngsters are
provided with national education. The development of national
schools with programs tailored to the needs of a struggling
society became a political imperative.

National education survived all the obstructive measures laid
down by the colonial government. This idea was adopted by other
Indonesian schools which initially cooperated with the colonial
government. They gradually became more radical, and together with
Taman Siswa they became an inseparable part of the national
movement toward independence.

These national schools later became the embryo of the national
education that we have today. The strength and viability of this
embryo was tested twice during the Japanese occupation, and
during the battles for independence between 1945 and 1949.

As we pay tribute to the educational pioneers, it would be
wise to ask ourselves the meaning of "national education" today.

What should be the relationship between national education and
education for participation in international life? How can we
revitalize our national education so that it becomes a part of
the national cultural force striving toward a more dignified
existence amid the family of modern, globalized nations?

There is a myriad of other questions that we have to ponder,
but the central question among them is, I think, the one about
revitalizing our educational system in order to regain the place
national education once occupied within the nation. It may be a
good idea if we followed Ki Hajar Dewantara's example and thought
and acted as "pioneers in the field of politics, education and
culture."

Window: These national schools later became the embryo of the
national education that we have today.