Here we are, the fingerprint generation, Indonesia’s future. As students we experience education in schools, and we are a part of those schools. So we are both subject and object in our nation’s drive to create a mature and intellectual Indonesian citizenry.

But we realize that our schools, the educational institutions that supposedly serve as the agents to realize the vision of those who founded this country, have their own problems.

Each of our schools in reality wants to be successful in their own terms.  Our school leaders seek prestige for their schools, forgetting that the point is to bring each student’s potential to light. Our time in these classrooms has yet to deliver on that potential.  When we graduate, we will only be ready for the working world, to get a job and live a life that others have determined for us. Our life path is already set.

I am a student in this system; I know I am obliged to get the highest marks in my report book. That leaves me wondering if those marks only reveal how good I was at memorizing the abundance of materials – most of the time irrelevant to the subject we’re studying – and at complying with an ever-changing curriculum that still fails to show significant progress toward developing learners with character.

Beyond all that, we believe–we know –that we are a generation that is embracing our potential. We are not the most powerful, but definitely we are ready for changes.

So, let’s declare ourselves: We are not the problem. We have borne that label on our forehead for a long time. We are capable of stimulating change, we can do something to change these conditions that impede us from growing up to be critical and innovative leaders. We want to get out of our comfort zone and demand our rights to grow up and take on adult responsibilities.

We are the vanguard of this country and we believe that we will soon inherit the command baton of this country. And there is no turning back.
 
Juwita Aulina

* Juwita Aulina is a high school student at SMA 6 in Jakarta. She initiated the Fingerprint Generation idea to unite students for their self-development.