National education 'has failed'

Annisa Rochadiat and Matheos Viktor Mesakh , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 02/14/2008 11:56 AM | Headlines

Contrary to the spirit of the 1945 Constitution, the national education system has failed to generate well-rounded individuals because it lacked vision and was not producing entrepreneurs, said educators and observers on Wednesday.

Senior educator H.A.R. Tilaar said the country's education system was heavily influenced by neo-liberal capitalism as a result of pressing globalization.

Education, he said, has increasingly become a commercialized entity, with students being geared into entering the work force.

"The education system is heavily biased toward intellectualism with examination grades as a parameter for success.

"The system is not aimed at creating wholesome, independent individuals," Tilaar said.

"It is nothing but a hollow institution with no clear vision for where it is heading."

Ethics professor Franz Magnis-Suseno said an education system needed to promote the basic values of integrity, justice and responsibility in order to make up individuals with character.

"These are the values that need to be cultivated through education.

"Sadly, the current education system fails to support the morality aspect of students," Franz said.

Education, he said, should not only teach students to think rationally without prejudice and emotion, but also to cope with frustration and manage conflict, which the nation was lacking.

"Culturally, we tend to avoid conflicts instead of trying to work things out," he said.

Former Muhammadiyah chairman Ahmad Syafii Maarif also said wisdom was another basic value students were in need of.

"Wisdom is something that needs to be cultivated in our children, especially when living in a plural society like ours," Syafii said.

Even though the law on the national education system stipulates the functions of national education -- disparity existed between legal frameworks and education in practice, he said.

Antarina S.F. Amir, managing director of active-learning school High/Scope Indonesia, said the current national education system did not correspond to reality.

"There is a dichotomy between the real world, which is highly diverse, and mainstream schooling, which heavily emphasizes uniformity," Antarina said.

Gadjah Mada University rector Sudjarwadi said the poor state of the education system could be characterized by its failure to create entrepreneurs.

"There are people who think as a university graduate they should choose white collar jobs rather than suppose to create jobs," he said.

The 2003 national economic census found 6.14 percent of university graduates were able to create jobs or establish their own enterprises, compared with 83.18 percent who opted to work as employees.

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