Revitalizing national education

A. Chaedar Alwasilah, Contributor, Bandung , 

Surprised at the Soviet's launch of Sputnik on Oct. 4, 1957 U.S. President Kennedy questioned what was wrong with education in America. This should have been a wake-up call for the Indonesian government that to succeed in science and technology, education should be of the highest priority in national development. The U.S. commitment to quality education was even more noticeable in the August 2007 outer space mission of Endeavor, which included Barbara Morgan, an elementary school teacher and NASA astronaut in the mission called Teacher in Space program.   |  Sun, 01/27/2008 4:00 AM  |  Supplement

Fixing the current system of education in Indonesia is indeed a huge task and it is often difficult to decide at which level to start. Quality early childhood education is a prerequisite for quality elementary education, which is a prerequisite for quality secondary education, which in turn is a prerequisite for quality college education. Until recently, early childhood education was not taken seriously into consideration. For that reason, it is the least developed division of education in the country. Quality education almost always entails costly investment, of which the impact on life is not spontaneously measurable. It is no wonder many people are impatient about educational policies and are reluctant to invest in education.

Apparently the government is incapable of providing quality education proportionally throughout the country due to several obstacles, including geographical conditions and lack of infrastructure in some areas. As a result, quality schools are more likely to be found in big cities. Providing quality education in remote areas and villages throughout the country has been and will be the most insurmountable challenge for the government in the years to come. Obviously, the use of information technology would be the best alternative to choose.

The establishment of quality schools or those with international standards run by international or local institutions has raised two issues. On one hand, it helps the government in providing educational opportunities to accommodate children who would otherwise be denied admission. On the other hand, it creates an exclusive elitist class of students and parents, a phenomenon that is the antithesis of massified and democratic education.

As a matter of fact, many wealthy parents send their children to schools and colleges overseas for quality education, thus using up our foreign exchange overseas. We should exercise an open-door policy to allow foreign schools and colleges to establish branch campuses in Indonesia for three reasons: (1) to attract the children of local wealthy parents so that the nation's foreign exchange is saved, (2) to attract students from neighboring countries, thus boosting the nation's foreign exchange, and (3) to provide a benchmark for local schools and colleges.

The issue of unemployment is often mentioned as evidence of failure of current educational programs to meet market demands. Many people point fingers at the content of school subjects that is not productive or relevant to society's needs. The government's plan to establish more vocational schools than general high schools with the ratio of 70:30 by year 2015 is a belated yet commendable policy.

However, many parents hold the erroneous belief that vocational high schools are less prestigious than general high schools. Likewise, many students feel there is more prestige in holding an S-1 degree than to hold a vocational certificate or diploma. This has been a long-held attitude and to a certain extent is a result of massified education that emphasizes knowledge over practice and action. It will take time to change this attitude, and the function of liberal education is, among other things, to change people's attitude.

Realizing that employment even for college graduates is difficult to get, parents as well as students now tend to be more pragmatic and realistic. Recently, one or two years of training in computer, accounting, ICT, hotel management, automotive and the like has become more attractive for high school graduates. This suggests that vocational programs are fairly valued, and therefore community colleges at regency levels can be founded. The private sector should be encouraged to establish vocational schools and community colleges rather than general schools.

The strategic plan of the National Education Ministry states that developments in education in 2005-2010 are concentrated on capacity building and modernization to help the government achieve its national goal, namely education for all. It is not until 2010-2015 that the focus will be on improving educational services. This suggests that educational equity and massified education could be achieved at the cost of quality. In most cases it is difficult to compromise quality service with massification in education.

On entering the 21st century, we note that education has become more and more integrated with economy and industry. There will be more emerging professions in many sectors. They make use of a plethora of specializations that open up new types of training and education. The quality of schooling has become a factor determining whether their graduates are provided with competencies to support those emerging professions.

To a great extent it is the economy that shapes the school and college curriculum as well as the modes of teaching and learning. As the favored mode of learning and teaching has been privatized, especially in business, state and government-subsidized schools and colleges are constantly being told to emulate the style of teaching and learning practiced in the private sector. The concept of link and match once suggested by former education and culture minister Wardiman is still relevant, that schools and colleges collaborate with industries and businesses for mutual benefits, enriching students with on-the-job experience and inspiring schools and colleges to modify the curriculum and modes of teaching.

The writer is vice rector for research and development, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI), Bandung.

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