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Bring back 'happiness, tolerance' to schools
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Children attend a coding class organized by Saturday Kids last June. (The Straits Times/-)
E
xperts highlight happiness and tolerance as elements that should be brought back to Indonesia’s education system amid a system of heavy curriculum and highly diversified communities.
On Monday, 1,000 academics, activists, officials and businesspeople gathered in a national meeting (Rembuk Nasional) to discuss and come up with recommendations for the government to develop education, among other sectors.
“How do we return their happy feelings of going to school? Schools cannot just be seen as classrooms, it’s more than that: the teachers and how they teach,” said economist Rhenald Kasali who headed the discussion for manpower development and vocational training during the event in Jakarta.
“One of the concerns include the issue of tolerance. Today, our children are faced with this problem in a country rich in diversity,” he added.
Current curriculum adopted by the Education and Culture Ministry aged back to the 2013 system is reportedly burdensome for students as it covers too many subjects and bars students from specializing as soon as possible.
Social media also plays a role in spreading intolerance over certain issues, ranging from differences in religion, race and sexual orientation, experts say. (evi)
