LEARNING THE HARD WAY

In a developing country such as Indonesia, where many citizens still struggle to put food on the table every day,
getting an education is a lesser priority. Even for those who do all that is supposedly required to educate and
better themselves, it often is not enough. Maggie Tiojakin reports.
The journey from childhood to adulthood is often defined by the education a person receives. The long road that
stretches from here to there is bound to come to several crossroads where crucial decisions are required for
the future. But what happens when the road ahead is nothing but a wasteland.
In a perfect world, each person would have unlimited access to education and schools would have adequate
funding and provisions from the government. For each goal accomplished, a reward would await; and no one
would be left behind.
Clearly, however, it isnt a perfect worldat least, not on this part of the globe, where public schools are
constantly struggling to stay afloat and the educational system keeps falling one hopeful student after another.
Jobs are scarce and the only thing many people have going for them is the hope that something will eventually
turn up.
There are an estimated 4 million Indonesians between the ages of 10 and 44 who are illiterate, placing the
country 95th among 175 countries surveyed in 2005 (UNESCO). And of the 78 million people up to 18 years of
age, 26 million have either dropped out of school, been expelled or have never seen the inside of a classroom,
according to 2006 data from the National Education Ministry.
Have we failed the young generation? Maybe, maybe not, says Ali Nurwan, the vice principal of one of the more
prestigious public schools in Jakarta. There are dozens of reasons why our system is not working properly.
Perhaps, in another, more promising, worldthese children would lead totally different lives. They would all go to
school and get the education they deserve. At the same time, am I absolutely sure that if they had gone to school
their lives would change for the better? Unfortunately, no.
While having a degree under ones belt is no guarantee of a better life, the door is often firmly shut to job seekers
who lack either the prerequisites or the connections (or both).
Yudis is a university graduate who majored in economics. His father works a greengrocer, while his mother is a
part-time domestic servant who takes in laundry. On the day of his graduation, his parents did not have time to
come to the ceremony. He has been unable to find an office job and has become a Metromini driver.
I paid for my own education by working different jobs, he says quietly from behind the wheel. I thought that
once I finished school, I could finally get to work in an office or something. Make some decent money, you know?
But here I am. His eyes appear dim under the brim of a green baseball cap. I guess my parents were right,
school is a waste of money.
A recent survey by the National Bureau of Statistics found more than 30 percent of high school graduates resort
to menial jobs and illegal occupations in order to support themselves, while 12 percent of college students dwell
in unemployment at any given time.
Who should we blame? asks Purwantoro, who teaches Child Development Studies at Atma Jaya University in
Jakarta. Its easy to yell at the government, but will it help create new job opportunities? Everthing has to be
reconstructed, from the quality of education to the morality of the educators and students. How many years is that
going to take? Ill tell you how many: a whole decade and more.
Experiences such as Yudis are part of the reason why some parents refuse to enroll their children in school, and
why the students themselves often choose to drop out. Whats the point?
Wakino, who works as a driver for a family in the capital, complains of his oldest sons decision not to finish his
high school education. When Wakino demanded an explanation, his son replied, Every good career opportunity
has been filled by someone with a better education than what I can offerwhy bother finishing school if Im going
to get stuck with the rest of the people who never even learned how to read?

Public education is a very complicated issue, says Nuraini Hasan, a member of the school council at a public
school in East Jakarta. Do you know that there are schools out there which are on the brink of getting shut down
each month because they cant make ends meet?
This may be hard to believe in an age of chat rooms and digicams, but manyif not mostpublic schools
outside of Jakarta cant even afford a computer. A laboratory often consists of an old microscope, a small surgical
table for biology experiments and dusty glass tubes which look as though they have never been touched, much
less used. In smaller regions and towns that you will never find by looking at a map, a classroom is little more
than a tent under which students huddle every morning behind termite-infested desks.
Poor public school facilities contribute to a number of issues that plague the educational system, which include
students inability to access information (library), practice their knowledge (laboratory) and follow up on their own
studies (bare necessities, such as notebooks, pencils, and rulers).
According to the Asian-South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education and the Global Campaign for Education,
Indonesia finished 10th out of 14 countries in the Asia Pacific evaluated for their educational system. Score-wise,
it achieved 42 out of 100or a big, fat F. Sri Lanka, a country that has endured a devastating three decades of
civil war and which visiting Indonesians are quick to point out does not boast the big-building development of their
homeland, still beats Indonesia on the education front with a B (Republika daily, 2005).
A survey by the Human Development Index found 60 percent of Indonesian elementary school teachers, 40
percent of middle and high school teachers and 34 percent of skill-oriented teachers are rated as incompetent to
teach at a national level. In addition, 17 percent of all teachers nationwide do not have the credentials to teach
their particular subjects.
The statistics are brutal, but what about the reality of things? With international schools increasing in number in
recent years, Indonesia cant be that desperatecan it?
International schools are the top dogs in our country, responds Ali. They are backed by a system that has been
proven to work in first-world countries. Their methods of teaching follow the Western curriculum, relying on a
different process of studying. We cant adopt this in our public schools because we lack the manpower as well as
funding.
We need to raise the bar higher, says Nuraini, speaking candidly in her second-floor office. The curriculum has
to be changed in a way that will accommodate the students interest rather than force them to excel at anything.
Purwantoro disagrees. I believe the first thing we need to do is train the educators. If we manage to get
qualified teachers out there, then we may have ourselves some kind of hope. If we want to educate the next
leaders of this country, we must first understand what it means to lead.
The way the system is designed, all three of the education levelselementary, secondary and tertiaryshould
prepare students to compete on a higher and more professional level. In universities, the playing field should
change form and status, aiming to create a learned generations who possess enough knowledge to enter the
global competition. Yet, in order to achieve such goals, everyone involvedfrom the National Education Ministry
to curriculum administrators and parentshas to play an active role.
Of course, its all good on paper, notes Ali, but, in reality, theres a huge gap between the desired status and
the actual status.
This is why education is complex, because it cuts across the board and everyone is a part of it. Purwanto says.
Once we have that, once we can get everybody on the same pageor at least the majority of themthen were
good to go. The rest will fall into place.
The Jakarta Post Weekender Magazine, May 2008.