University diplomas still considered a status symbol
JAKARTA (JP): Most people in Indonesia still consider attending university a way to enhance their social status and treat their studies as a secondary factor, according to a senior official of the Ministry of Education.
Such an attitude is hampering the government's ambitious "link and match" program, which tries to conform the educational system to the needs of industry, Bambang Soehendro, the Director General for Higher Education said in a seminar yesterday.
"Many Indonesians still see a sarjana, or S1 graduate title merely as a status symbol," Bambang said during the seminar which discussed the role of private universities in improving the quality of human resources.
A sarjana title equals a bachelor degree.
Bambang said that this attitude "is not to be blamed" because, presently, the majority of university students in Indonesia are the first in their families to receive the title.
"Being a (university) student is already considered an achievement of its own," he stressed.
Thus, without regarding the actual demands of the present labor market, students with "attitudes" encouraged by their families enter into whatever programs schools universities offer. They later find themselves unable to find a job, as their field of studies do not match the demands of the market.
This has created a dilemma for the government, he said, because on the one hand it is trying to increase the number of university graduates but on the other hand there is an increasing number of jobless degree-holders.
Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro, in his keynote address to the seminar, said it was "just impossible" to stop people from wanting to become sarjana graduates.
Reason
He pointed out that some students he had questioned admitted they did not have any specific reason for choosing their respective fields and said that they studied for the sake of studying alone.
"Some even admitted that they enrolled in a particular field of study which is less popular so they would be sure to face the least amount of competition," Wardiman said.
He admitted, however, that there is still no sure-fire method for private universities to know what types of graduates are being sought by industry.
Wardiman said a special team of officials from the ministry of manpower and the National Development Planning Board are working out guidelines for a national manpower planning scheme, which is expected to help private universities determine which schools may continue admitting students and which should not.
Bambang pointed out, however, that it was "dangerous" to create a specific manpower-planning scheme only to fulfill the target of the education system alone, because there is always a time lag between the labor demand and supply.
"What is planned now should be applicable for the next five to 15 years, meaning that it is disadvantageous to keep the doors of 'saturated' schools open while we are unable to allot the graduates," he said.
He explained that, of the current labor force of 80 million, only 2.5 percent are university graduates and over 70 percent have only an elementary school education, or are elementary school drop-outs.
For Indonesia to increase the number of university graduates by one percent, 800,000 graduates are needed. With the present situation as it is, Indonesia is able to create 200,000 university graduates each year, which is only 0.25 percent of the total labor force, he said.
"Only after 15 years, given a one-percent increase every four years, can we boost the size of university graduates to six percent, for instance. However, if the labor force exceeds 80 million in the future, then we may not be able to even reach six percent," he said.(pwn)