Letter: Challenge of the ticking time bomb

Mon, 05/19/2008 11:48 AM  |  Reader's Forum

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's recent address with Bill Gates in attendance is well-taken. There lies a grave danger in the digital divide. For developing countries such as Indonesia, the race to come up to speed is a perilous one, for there is a time bomb ticking away.

Nowadays an ambitious entrepreneur in Indonesia can make a decent living without the benefits of a university education, especially if their business involves trade in the archipelago's rich natural resources.

The incentive to seek higher education is diminished by the fact it doesn't necessarily help most people succeed in their business pursuits. Higher education still does not equal financial success here.

The commodities market still offers the most opportunity for entrepreneurs, and though an education in marketing and accounting can certainly help, such skills can be obtained at the senior vocational schools (SMK) level.

In fact, any young Indonesian seeking a decently paid job directly out of junior high school would be best advised to choose SMK, not senior high school (SMA).

As long as low-tech marketing of raw materials provides the best short-term income and as long as the country's natural resources hold out, there probably will not be a pressing need to focus on improving higher education.

Returning to the challenge of the ticking time bomb, Indonesia has only a few decades in which to broaden its economic landscape, such as developing a manufacturing base with management by a skilled local workforce.

Indonesia is a very young country and these observations are not offered in the spirit of negative criticism. One can only hope the country and its experiment in democracy will succeed. How the government can inspire the people to value education more highly presents the most difficult challenge, as is how best to institute much needed educational reform.

Hopefully an influx of cheap computers and free software as offered by Bill Gates and others will help move Indonesia in the right direction, but the infrastructure for disseminating the technology as well as learning English must be funded as well. The Internet's primary language is English, so language training is key to viewing the internet as a viable tool.

JOHN GORRINDO
Manado, North Sulawesi

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