finished!!!

OK...I am so done with the essay for book chapter "The Voice of Indonesian Future Leaders."

It's not a very special paper, but I have it done, and I am finished with it. I am so glad I put in the effort and the hard work. At the end of the day, I am proud of my work. I am so glad that I did not give up when obstacles threw itself to me. I am so glad I ignored excuses that come up on daily basis on my head. 2, 880 something words. Phew!!

EDUCATION AS THE BACKBONE OF A NATIONAL AWAKENING


Introduction
Many Asian countries have gained greater prominence in the world by achieving large economic growth for the past decade. The 21st century is often touted as the “Asia Pacific century” for those reasons. However, World Economic Forum in June 2007 had identified ‘low education’ as one of the problems that remains a challenge for leaders in the Asia region (World Economic Forum Website, 2007). In the Global Competitiveness Report created by the Forum, Indonesia is one of the said countries. Indonesia ranks in number 87 out of 134 countries for health and primary education, and 71 out of 134 countries for higher education and training. The endeavor to improve Indonesia’s national education system has always been relevant to our nation’s journey. Today, it remains as critical as ever. To enable its people to compete successfully in this globally connected world, empowerment through education is a necessary action. Empowerment can be defined as ‘the process of increasing the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired action and outcomes’ (Poverty Net, 2008). Education is central to development and it is one of the most powerful instruments to reduce poverty, inequality, and lays a foundation for sustained economic growth (World Bank, 2008). “Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to the answer of all question” (Allin, 2005). Improving the state of education for Indonesia’s children is the first necessary step that can ultimately facilitate a national awakening in Indonesia.

Official objectives, vision, and mission statements from the Indonesian Minister for National Education have addressed the importance of creating globally competitive human capital in such an increasingly connected world. However, it appears that the implementation of the education policies often falls short of the aforementioned lofty vision and missions. Firstly, the essay will discuss the current Ministry’s visions and missions for national education. Secondly, it will examine the implementation of education strategy to achieve the stated missions, focusing specifically for participation rate, accessibility of education, and learning experience quality. Thirdly, the essay will evaluate the weaknesses of the current approach in addressing those three areas. Gaps between what have been done and what should be done, will be highlighted in this section. The aims of the paper are to emphasise the urgency of bridging the action gaps, the unique importance of investing in the education sector, and suggests ways in which the implementation on education strategy in macro level, such as Government’s education policy coherence and in micro level, such as students’ learning experience, can be improved.


National Education Objectives: The Minister’s Vision and Missions.
According to the Indonesian Minister for National Education (Department of National Education Website 2008), the education policies aim to produce graduates “who have faith in and be dedicated to the Only Almighty God, have noble characters, and have resilience in all areas.” They should also be “smart, healthy in body and mind, have discipline, and must be creative, productive, and professional in their chosen field. They should also be a responsible citizen capable to participate in a democratic society. ” The manifestation of this purpose can be seen through the Ministry of National Education’s statements of vision and mission. The vision is to produce capable and competitive Indonesian graduates by 2025. The ways to reach this vision is defined in the mission statements, which are listed below:
1. Expand access of quality education to include all citizens of Indonesia
2. Assist and facilitate the growth of human potential in all their lifetime to shape a society committed to learning
3. Increase the quality of input and processes of education to optimally shape the moral and character building of the nation
4. Increase the professionalism and the accountability of the educational institution as the center to build knowledge, capabilities, skills, moral, character, according to global and national standard
5. Leveraging the participation of civil society in conducting education as in the principle of autonomy in the context of the Republic of Indonesia. (Department of National Education Website 2008)
It appears that on a national scale, Indonesia is determined to shape its citizens’ desire to be capable and globally competitive individuals. Indeed it is necessary that Indonesian citizens possess these characteristics if the nation is serious about realizing a national awakening.


Analysis of Participation Rate and Education Accessibility
Regardless of this focus, however, participation rate for secondary enrollment and higher degree in Indonesia is still globally low. Obviously, the first step to achieve the education objectives is to ensure that all children have access to education. To measure Indonesia’s ranks amongst other countries, the provided data from The Global Competitiveness Report 2008 – 2009 can be a source of consideration. Primary school enrollment ranking places Indonesia in number 48 out of 131 countries, however for secondary enrollment, Indonesia ranks only 102 out of 131 and for tertiary enrollment Indonesia ranks 91 out of 131 countries. Moreover, secondary enrollment only ranks in 102 and tertiary enrollment in 91 (World Economic Forum Online 2008). The focus on globalization and the resulting dependence on information, technology, and knowledge-circulation is the driving factor that steer Bambang Soedibyo’s policy as the Minister of National Education, to create a knowledge-based society through the education system. Tightening worldwide competition and interconnection between countries demand Indonesians to be globally competitive (Department of National Education Online 2008). Considering that higher education and training is an important part of a nation’s efficiency enhancer – which is a significant factor of global competitiveness – addressing the accessibility of secondary and tertiary levels of schooling to reach all socio-economic background and making this a priority concern are indeed very relevant for development.


Evaluation of Current Approaches: Action Gaps and Recommendations
The Government have implemented the compulsory 9 years schooling program which includes 6 years of primary level and 3 years of junior secondary level. The purpose is to achieve 95 per cent participation rate nationally of junior secondary schooling. Bambang Soedibyo recently explained that this had been achieved in several provinces. A few other provinces and regions, however, still found it a very difficult target to achieve. Thus, the Minister emphasizes that one of their main focus in 2009 is to increase junior secondary schooling participation in those locations that have not reached that number (National Education Ministry Website, 2008). Problems identified include inaccessible location of schools, inadequate number of teachers, and lack of economic ability in families to afford education fees. Examples of initiatives are the Bantuan Operasional Sekolah (School Operational Assistance) and Program Keluarga Harapan schemes, the latter to help education costs of poor families’ children. The schemes are noble initiatives to address current problems. However, this strategy might not have been as adequate as committing to 20 per cent of education budget.


The mandate stated in Chapter 31 of the amended 1945 Constitution calls for a minimum of 20 % allocation of the national and local development budget for education. In 2007, Indonesia effectively spends 12 per cent of national budget for education (Wijayanto, 2008). It is hardly enough to finance the growing need for upgrading the quality of education. This is significantly lower than China (32 per cent), Singapore (22 per cent), Malaysia (22 per cent), and Thailand (21 per cent). Many other countries are treating education for investment and spends larger amount of their national budget than Indonesia. Good education is not cheap and it requires a lot of funds to develop facilities, to train and retain teachers and lecturers. China’s Ministry of Finance spending on education for 2007 reached $85 billion from total national budget of $263.2 billion. The country rewards teachers generously, regularly trains them and sends them overseas to learn about education practices (Nanti, 2008). Granted, these countries have bigger economic growth than Indonesia, therefore they may be able to afford the money for education sector. By promoting 95 per cent participation rate of junior secondary schooling and yet not ensuring the provision of 20 percent national budget for education, the Government actions for national education policy lack coherence. Ultimately, it raises questions about the country’s commitment for national education. Current initiatives helped solve short-term problems, but do not ensure education quality for longer term. They do not adequately provide ways to fulfill the Government’s aforementioned missions. In addition, Indonesia also pales in comparison to other countries for education expenditures. It appears that Indonesia has not treated education as a priority sector.


The Indonesian Government should commit to the prioritization of education sector to ensure the achievement of previously stated objectives, vision, and missions. Indonesia does have many other pressing issues to deal with such as health, infrastructure, and energy that requires budget increases, nevertheless it does not mean that education for the Indonesia’s future generation can take a backseat for a while. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono mentioned in a plenary speech to the House of Representative that education is fourth priority after 1) investment, export growth and employment creation, 2) revitalization of agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and rural development, and 3) acceleration of infrastructure, development, and energy management. As stated by Irsad Sudiro, a member of education commission in the House of Representative, one of Indonesian government’s biggest mistakes is treating human resources development as expense and not as an investment, whereas China, Malaysia, and Singapore all consider the education sector as investment (Nanti, 2008). Globally, Indonesia ranks in number 126 out of 134 for its education expenditure, putting it as one of the countries with lowest education expenditure (World Economic Forum Online 2008). The commitment of governments to provide sufficient budget will help schools charge as low fee as possible for education. This will effectively increase education accessibility. The return on education spending will not be immediate, but it has a track record of coming back in many-fold, which can impact positively for economic growth (Bellamy 1999).

Unique Importance of the Education Sector
By making the sector a priority, Indonesia can actually advance its development and jumpstart its goals on other development goals such as health, rural development, infrastructure, and energy. There are many reasons why some countries are being left behind in development while some other countries continue to advance (Bellamy 2004). Firstly, governments fail to be accountable for securing the total package of resources to ensure every citizen’s right to education. While it is considered desirable to have as many children in school as a country can afford, it was not considered obligatory and necessary for government to mobilize the needed resource so that all children can complete a quality education. Secondly, failure to understand that the real objective of development is human well-being instead of economic performance causes the investment for education to be relegated when budget decision is being negotiated and in times of fiscal constraints. In addition, the assumption that economic growth would deliver human development was already considered flawed globally. The opposite seems to be true: human development fosters economic growth. A UNICEF study of 49 nations shows that countries that achieved the highest average annual growth between 1990 and 2000 were those that had a baseline in 1980 of low child mortality and low income poverty, while the economies that actually shrank in that decade were those that all started 1980 with high child mortality and high income poverty (UNICEF Report ‘Synergies, Cost-Benefit Analysis, and Child Policies, 2003). High child mortality and high income poverty are two symptoms of low education level. Thus by addressing education for all, governments effectively addressed many other problems (Bellamy, 1999).


Increasing Students’ Learning Experience: Incorporating More Character-Building & Moving Beyond Knowledge-Based Education
Ensuring citizens’ opportunity by increasing accessibility of education for all is the first step to achieve a goal of producing capable and globally competitive individuals. However, to achieve objectives of being comprehensively capable and globally competitive, it is important that schools not only incorporate knowledge-based education but also character-building opportunity in its curriculum and learning activities. Our schools should not only focus on conveying knowledge and theoretical understanding to its students but also on setting examples on characters and values that are universally high-regarded. This includes appreciation and respect for diversity, critical thinking, innovation, and social awareness. For this to be possible, it is essential that teachers be equipped and trained to understand the conditions in which students’ learning for their character-building can really flourish. It is useful to study education practices in developed countries to improve students’ education experience.


Lessons from Australia & Singapore
According to Victoria State of Australia’s Department of Education, there are six principles of learning environment that can foster children’s education. The learning condition need to be supportive and productive, promotes independence, interdependence, and self-motivation, reflects students’ backgrounds, needs, interests, and perspectives, challenges and supports students to develop deep levels of thinking and application, make assessment practices as an integral part of learning and teaching, and connects strongly with community and practice beyond classroom (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development Online 2008). These principles, if applied and incorporated to classroom experience, may just produce students and graduates who can appreciate that education is more than the act of acquiring knowledge. More importantly, it may enhance students’ desire to apply what they learn in classroom for real life environment.

An example of implementation for the aforementioned principles is the development of assessment tasks that ask students to demonstrate its application in their immediate environment rather than a sitting examination of how well students can memorize its theoretical concepts. This is particularly suitable for subjects such as Moral Education, Religious Studies, and Social Sciences. This can enhance their understanding for connecting with community and practice of learning beyond classroom. An assignment for a class to coordinate and holding a social event to help disadvantaged and marginal community as a part of Religious and Moral Education subjects will have bigger effect and more lasting legacy for students.
Another example is to change school seats arrangement in class. For instance, the usual arrangement is the teacher speaks in front of the class and all students are sitting facing the teacher. If the classroom arrangement can be made in a round-table discussion, whereby teacher sits in the middle and acts as moderator, students might just have the chance to increase their ability to speaking in public, critical and independent thinking, develop appreciation for different opinions in the class, and at the same time being conveyed the knowledge-based materials as well. This will be useful for social science subjects. Improvements of learning quality need not to be expensive, and this is one of the cheaper ways education experience for students can be improved.


Learning process in science subjects can be complemented with reflective journal writing. This practice has been used in Singapore classrooms to accompany laboratory work and facilitate science students’ curiosity and engagements. Students are asked to write in their notebooks questions they have about the lesson, something they have learned in a session, and some thought-provoking incidents that happen in class. This enables the students to view the learning of science as an ongoing process whereby they stopped at an interval to think about what they are doing. In turn, it helps them build laboratory skills by keeping records of their experiences and practicing to analyse by thinking about questions they want to ask about the laboratory experience. In addition, the students’ writing allowed for issues to be dealt with by the teacher in the classroom. Extra-curricular questions should not be ignored because it can discourage inquiry from students. Instead, teachers should provide extra resources for students to follow up and find out on their own. This practice will not be appealing for all students, therefore teachers need to provide students for guidance throughout this activity. This process can help develop Indonesian students’ ability of deep, critical thinking and therefore moving beyond just knowing the facts about science to having the skills of how scientists do science. After all, scientific inquiry involves identifying and asking questions, designing and conducting experiences, analyzing data and evidence, using models and explanations, and communicating findings (Towndrow, Tan, & Venthan, 2008).


Conclusion
In conclusion, prioritizing education is the first necessary step for Indonesia to gain greater level of competitiveness in the world. Even though the Indonesian government has identified the need to create graduates who are capable and competitive in the increasingly globalised climate, its commitment for the implementation has not been sufficient. Comparison between Indonesia with other Asian countries has been drawn to illustrate the extent of their commitment to education. In addition, the focus on knowledge-based education has not been incorporated with character-building components. Thus the action gaps examined in the essay include the lack of education expenditure and the integration of character-building learning in the classroom. Ensuring that children has access to good education and then substantiating the promise of good education with quality experience in schools will positively influence and open the minds for Indonesian future generations. The provision of education for the future generation will be one of the best investments that governments put in for the nation. Making education as the number one priority will ensure a better future for Indonesia. Just like a family who provides education for the children ensure greater future, what will work for familial level is the same for communal level, and for national level.