UNESCO warns RI facing a dire problem

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.