Equity in national education the best option

Setiono Sugiharto ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 05/02/2008 1:33 PM  |  Focus

According the article "UNESCO gives top marks to RI in literacy goal", published in The Jakarta Post on March 11, Indonesia is among the nine nations with the highest illiteracy rates.

It was further reported that between 1995 and 2005 adult illiteracy rates in Indonesia hit over 90 percent.

This figure is in sharp contrast with rates reported in 1971, 1980 and 1990 when the number of illiterate people decreased from 39.1 to 28.8, and then to 15.9 percent respectively (Kompas, Jan. 30).

These consistently decreasing rates of illiteracy bear testimony the New Order government was successful in its efforts to eradicate illiteracy. This success was owed very much to Soeharto's compulsory learning program, launched at the end of Pelita III, a five-year development.

The program was initiated by Soeharto to provide opportunity for all Indonesians to have equal access to education.

It can be therefore said, that during Soeharto's era, national education in general and the fight against illiteracy in particular were important agendas the government had prioritized.

It was a kejar-kelompok belajar (group learning) program the government used as its means to fight illiteracy at the time. These programs, aiming to boost literacy, proved to work, with the number of illiterate people consistently plummeting each year.

Equity in education, after all, was Soeharto's prime philosophy in giving equal opportunity for Indonesian people to attend school. This was reflected in the construction of thousands of state elementary schools, especially in remote areas in the provinces.

In the period of 1982-1983, 22,600 schools were built and 150,000 more were constructed in 1993-1994.

The exponential growth in illiteracy of late, as the above statistics show, also indicates the current government is not fighting illiteracy seriously, which is emblematic of, and has become chronic in, developing countries like Indonesia.

The government's failure to fight illiteracy has been further exacerbated by the cutting of budgetary provisions for national education to 10 percent.

Sadly, Soeharto's legacy of equity in education does not seem to have a place in the current government's education policy. The gap between those who can attend schools and those who can't is widening, contributing to the high rate of illiteracy in the country.

Education has become an object of commercialization which can be enjoyed by the affluent only. The present situation can be best described as what Lester Faigley calls "the revolution of the rich", which can create a growing class inequity in many areas of life, including in education.

Higher rates of literacy and quality education in general would only be possible if the government were seriously committed to not only revamping the education system by constantly overhauling the curriculum, but also by wholeheartedly investing at least 20 percent of the state budget in the education sector, as is mandated.

Investment in the education sector is particularly critical, not only in combating illiteracy, but also in improving the quality of human resources. This should be acknowledged in terms of the Human Development Index, on which Indonesia is far below Japan, Singapore and Malaysia, to mention just a few.

Needless to say, there is a strong correlation between the Human Development Index and the literacy rate. The more literate a nation is, the higher its Human Development Index.

By way of comparison, our neighbor Malaysia, for example, is known for its high Human Development Index because more than 93 percent of its population today is literate.

While our country has no clear education policy on literacy, Malaysia has been implementing its national policies on literacy since 1963.

To execute the policy, the Malaysian government, under the Ministry of Rural Development, formulated and implemented life-long education programs, which are exclusively addressed to issues related to the country's illiteracy.

Among the programs carried out are the harmonious family education program, skill-training programs, community resource center and reading programs, functional literacy programs and community work programs.

The goal of these government-sponsored programs is to eradicate illiteracy among adults and youths aged 15 years and above and to provide participants with knowledge and skills useful for their daily life.

We will never become a competitive nation of professionals if our people, including young generations, are still illiterate and lack access to education.

The government must take immediate action to overhaul our education system and to solve illiteracy problems our societies are suffering from now -- otherwise, we are going to be left behind the rest of the world.

The writer is chief-editor of the Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching. He can be reached at setiono.sugiharto@atmajaya.ac.id.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.