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The emancipatory path of the national education system
As mandated by Article 3 of Law No. 20/2003 on the national education system, one of the primary objectives of education.is to shape democratic and responsible citizens.
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Back to school: Students assemble for morning roll call on July 18, 2022, the first day of the new school year, at SDN Inpres Vim 3 state elementary school in Kotaraja subdistrict in Papua’s provincial capital, Jayapura. (Antara/Sakti Karuru)
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ducation has long been considered a means for social mobility that allows children from less privileged backgrounds to gain the knowledge and skills needed to succeed and elevate their social status. While this may be a widely accepted social reality, it is not the main purpose of education. In fact, education is a tool for social emancipation that goes beyond individual aspirations.
Throughout history, education has been a political entity with a mission (Standish, 2019). During the colonial era, it was used as a tool to instill political compliance and cultural values of colonial governments, while also serving as an effective platform for awakening resistance among indigenous people. The Taman Siswa movement in Indonesia (Tsuchiya, 1975) and the decolonization of education programs in India (Elder, 1971) are prime examples of this.
In independent countries, education systems have been developed to support the political goal of nation-building (Ramirez and Boli, 1987). They serve as a means of socializing the ideology, values and vision of a nation and its society. As Kaestle (2011) points out in his study of the history of American public schools, "the prevention of crime and poverty became the leading moral mission of public schools".
Thus, educational institutions exist not only for the benefit of individual participants, but also for the wider purposes of society and the nation. As mandated by Article 3 of Law No. 20/2003 on the National Education System, one of the primary objectives of education is to shape democratic and responsible citizens.
To ensure that education remains relevant to society and the nation, learning in educational institutions should always be connected to the dynamic changes in society. It's not enough for the school curriculum to only teach scientific knowledge as a theoretical discipline. Instead, it should also include knowledge that helps students understand and address social issues.
Borrowing the ideas of German philosopher Jürgen Habermas in Knowledge and Human Interests (1971), schools should not just focus on teaching technical and practical knowledge. They should also provide students with emancipatory knowledge, which aims to connect the acquisition of knowledge with humanity's aspirations for freedom from oppression and the realization of justice and welfare.
Through an emancipatory perspective, students are taught to analyze and understand information through a creative process that is free from coercion. This also prompts reflection on how their understanding can help address social issues around them. In this sense, Mathematics is not just about counting and logic but also a lesson about problem-solving. Sociology is not only about understanding the behavior of a group of people, but also a lesson that can stimulate social advocacy.
