Editorial: The education dilemma

Thu, 05/15/2008 12:20 PM  |  Opinion

In a seminar organized by The Jakarta Post last week, University of Indonesia rector Gumilar Rusliwa Somantri said that state universities charged lower student fees than private universities, even though many of their students come from wealthy families. The professor of sociology also insisted he allocated most of the enrollment spots for academically able students regardless of their financial circumstances. But is this the reality?

Shortly after the rector's assurance, a survey by a leading newspaper showed state universities are still too expensive for most students.

A report by Kompas daily said the entrance and tuition fees of Indonesian state universities could reach Rp 100,000,000 (US$10,802) and Rp 70,000,000 (US$7,561), respectively. This means nothing but misery for the Indonesian people -- or to be precise, for our high school graduates.

It is true and understandable that state universities have little choice but to charge high fees to university entrants since their government subsidies were withdrawn in 2000.

Still, these fees are too expensive for most Indonesian families to bear. The figures, especially for tuition fees, are not uncomparable with Singapore where fees range between S$9,540 (US$6,969) and $27,350 ($19,978). This is much higher than the fees charged by Malaysian universities.

Caretakers of our state universities should be ashamed of themselves for charging similar fees to Singapore and higher fees than those of Malaysia while the average performance or quality of our universities is no better than those of neighboring countries.

Comparatively and logically it is difficult to understand why Indonesian state universities are so expensive.

It is instructive to think through why Indonesian state universities have become less and less competitive compared to overseas universities.

It is not surprising to see that wealthy Indonesians prefer to study abroad rather than take university degrees at home, where quality is lower.

Unlike their wealthy peers, poor but bright students now find it difficult to enter state universities because they cannot afford the expensive entrance and tuition fees. Even the scholarships provided by the government and the private sector, according to the 2006 figures of the Central Statistics Agency, only cover 2.4 percent of all university students.

The government, as mandated by the Constitution, is obliged to provide universal education to the people. So, what should it -- and the nation as a whole -- do to solve this problem?

First of all, the government should think about the reintroduction of subsidies for state universities. Otherwise, the government as the mandate holder for the Indonesian general public could be blamed for the failure to provide the basic right to education as guaranteed in the Constitution.

The government should not limit itself to campaigning for the nine-year compulsory education program for primary education. It should press on with promoting the development of higher education -- which is the backbone of the scientific and technological development of the nation.

Failure to do this will result in our being left behind in global competition as other nations have developed global multinational corporations and have produced high-tech, sophisticated and world-class products. The Indonesian people will increasingly be merely the consumers of foreign products and continue to produce raw materials, thanks to abundant but finite natural resources.

It could be difficult to restart university subsidies as the state universities have got used to, and become comfortable with, the current self-supporting university management. They could be unwilling to depend again on government funds and to give up their newly acquired autonomous financial management.

It is advisable for the caretakers of state universities to rethink the current concept of university management. A useful lesson can be learned from liberalized university management in the United States, where the free market includes the education sector. There only wealthy parents are able to send their children to top U.S. universities, while those bright but average-to-poor students have to forget their dreams of entering the best universities and settle for less.

Second, the government should aim to make a breakthrough in upgrading the quality of Indonesian graduates by granting scholarships for bright but poor students, or by sending the country's best minds abroad as practiced in the past by the New Order government under the presidency of Soeharto.

Currently, many corporations have been involved in providing scholarships for bright but poor students. But their impact is still limited and it is the right time for the government to get more actively involved in this program.

As Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, an Indian philosopher, says: "Education is a part of cultural life ... Education should be free, and education must be based on universalism."

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