Value education
The presence of Simon Marcus Gower's articles in The Jakarta Post, the most recent one appearing on March 15, has greatly increased the value of this esteemed paper. All his articles to this date have discussed various educational policies.
At the recent eighth UNESCO-Asia Pacific Program of Education Innovation for Development held in Bangkok, the topic of discussion was the value of education.
An Indian delegate at the conference, J.S. Rajput, stated in an article in the Indian Express that the aim of the discussion was to figure out "what type of education is needed to empower citizens to become agents of change for better world societies"?
I think Gower has covered various aspects of the type of schooling and educational authority needed to mold such citizens.
A flexible curriculum which encourages creativity and utilizes minimal rote memorization is basically accepting the fact that each individual is unique and should grow at his or her own pace. Thus an individual will, as Gower puts it, be "able to explore their own selves and gain an understanding of themselves".
"Character building", if enforced through dictatorial methods, will have a knock-on effect leaving a school with "hurt" students. Both the "hurt" students and the ones inflicting the "hurt" are on the wrong track to effective citizenship.
As Gower says, "Dictatorial slogans are less about character development and more about character control and the implanting of characteristics whether good or bad."
When students work more as a team under the guidance of the teacher they learn to cooperate with one another, accepting one another's strengths and weaknesses graciously. Both the teacher- student and the student-student relationship flourishes. All in all, as Gower says, "understanding takes place", and understanding builds tolerance -- a key factor to nation- building.
As more and more students graduate with these values firmly embedded in their characters, ready to take their place in society, the transformation of a nation's status from developing to developed takes place faster.
SUNITHA GIRISH, Bekasi, West Java
SunithaGirish