UNESCO warns RI facing a dire problem

By Rita A. Widiadana

Indonesia has been buffeted by social, economic and political blows for more than a year. And there is no sign of a recovery in sight. The country's education, culture and science sectors, along with environmental management, are particularly at risk in this long-lasting crisis. In conjunction with its 53rd anniversary on Wednesday (Nov. 4), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Jakarta Office representatives shared their concerns and expectations, and described what they are doing to help the country overcome its myriad problems.

JAKARTA (JP): Education for all is one of the ultimate goals of every country in the world and UNESCO in particular. But it the current global circumstances it will be very hard to achieve, especially when many countries, like Indonesia, are overwhelmed by multifaceted crises.

Stephen Hill, director of UNESCO's Jakarta office, said in a recent interview that the ongoing crisis had badly affected the national education system, and that this would seriously hinder the country's human resources development.

"Economic and political problems must certainly be resolved immediately, but education, culture, science and environmental issues must also be addressed in comprehensive ways," explained Hill, a professor of sociology with a doctorate in Business Administration.

Issues relating to education, culture and environmental management are frequently overlooked because of their long-term impacts on people's lives, particularly when compared to the more immediate ongoing economic and political upheavals, he said.

"Strains on education will likely add to the increasing numbers of out-of-school youths who will someday lead the country, while pressures on cultural and environmental issues will certainly rock the country's balanced and sustainable situation," he noted.

In 1997, according to data from the Ministry of Education and Culture, the school-age population, ranging from elementary to high-school levels, was 52.7 million, while the number of school drop-outs was 17.5 million.

A research by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Unicef and Atmajaya University predicted that during the crisis, an additional seven million youths will swell the ranks of school dropouts because of their parents' social and financial difficulties.

The data also says the current crisis has seen the number of impoverished families rise from 11 percent of the 202 million population to between 28.5 percent and 30 percent. The definition of impoverished is annual per capita income of less than US$600.

Compared to other countries in Asia, Indonesia's crisis is more serious and more complicated, Hill said, partly because as the economic, political and social collapse took hold, Indonesia was still recovering from various environmental disasters such as forest fires and the long drought, both of which caused significant losses.

UNESCO and other agencies are currently working hand-in-hand to adjust and find the most appropriate ways of helping Indonesia and other neighboring countries out of their predicament.

"The crisis has sparked a stronger sense of solidarity among agencies in the United Nations and among governments throughout the world," Hill said.

UNESCO is working closely with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) in assisting the Indonesian government monitor and respond to the severe impact of the economic crisis on the nation's educational system in particular and social conditions in general.

These three organizations were invited to represent the UN at the Consultative Group on Indonesia conference in Tokyo in July 1997 when all major development assistance donors to Indonesia met and pledged their financial support for 1998.

"UNESCO is not a funding agency but we act as facilitator to mobilize national and international support to help the UN's member state countries," Hill explained.

Established in 1945, UNESCO focuses on building human potential, promoting wider opportunities to basic education and building a culture of peace through international intellectual cooperation and human resources development in education, science, culture and communication.

The organization currently has 186 member states. It also has official relations with 588 non-governmental organizations (NGO)s and co-operates on an occasional basis with about 1,200 more.

Its Jakarta office was established in l951 as the UNESCO Field Office for Southeast Asia Science Cooperation. In 1967, the status of the office was changed into the Regional Office for Science and Technology for Southeast Asia. In 1993, the office's mandate was expanded to the Regional Office for Southeast Asia and representative to Indonesia and the Philippines.

To respond to the crisis, UNESCO's Jakarta office has launched a number of short and long-term projects in the education, culture and environment fields.

Education coordinator Ayako Inagaki said the office focused on Indonesia's basic education in connection with the Indonesian government's poverty alleviation program.

"UNESCO helps design education programs that will give children of low-income families, both in rural and urban areas, access to basic education," Inagaki and.

Among the programs are the Indonesian Distance Learning Network, regarded as the most feasible way of broadening learning opportunities to the whole population.

Inagaki said many elementary school graduates were unable to continue their studies due to socioeconomic and geographical handicaps. These include a lack of transport and communication facilities, and the limited availability of local learning resources.

The establishment of SLTP Terbuka (Open Junior Secondary Schools) was mainly intended to extend services, to expand enrollment rates and to support the efforts to providing equal education opportunities to elementary school graduates.

"We cannot close our eyes to the reality that many school-age children have to work to help their family earn a living," Inagaki said.

In the SLTP Terbuka education system, she added, economically handicapped children could continue to work. They are expected to study mostly by themselves at their own pace and in their own time.

In Karadena village, Cibinong subdistrict, West Java, UNESCO fosters a literacy and continuing education project which is aimed at helping families with low education and income levels improve their welfare through continuing education integrated with income-generating activities.

The project, which is based at the district learning center, consists of a core curriculum for health and nutrition education, entrepreneurship, civic education and practical law, technical skills training courses for cooking, welding, gardening and sewing. It also focuses on business partnership building and the cooperative movement.

UNESCO has introduced other education programs, stressing managing the delivery of a cost-effective, self-sustaining and applicable local-content curriculum program for junior secondary school.

they are targeted at schools located in the poorest areas of the three poorest districts in Lampung province of South Sumatra.

Culture

One of the goals, in addition to improving junior high school graduates' access to income-generating skills and activities, is to enhance students' awareness of local culture.

"Promoting cultural understanding is important in a multicultural society like Indonesia. Many problems are caused by a lack of understanding and tolerance of social and cultural differences," Hill said.

UNESCO is seeking to increase this understanding through the promotion of pluralism and intercultural dialog, stimulating cultural industry and the conservation and management of cultural heritage.

Philippe Delanghe, the Jakarta office's culture specialist, said that UNESCO had launched, in conjunction with various other bodies, programs aiming to conserve the nation's cultural and political heritage. It is also promoting programs that can bridge cultural gaps between Indonesian people such as cultural exhibitions, performances, research and studies.

UNESCO and the National Museum are currently working on a cultural project involving school students in Jakarta and other areas.

"Building cultural understanding must be started in the early years of people's lives," Delanghe explained.

There are many other activities being undertaken by UNESCO and other agencies to help Indonesia overcome its difficulties. But, Hill stressed that this crisis could not be tackled from a single-issue perspective because it was linked to other problems.

"Integrated and inter-disciplinary activities involving social, economic, political, cultural and environmental projects are needed badly if we want to cope with the crisis," Hill said.