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JAKARTA POST, 02 Mei 2013
This year’s national examination fiasco and the
questionable 2013 curriculum have turned out to be pressing problems in the
eyes of the public. Students will have mixed feelings on the upcoming results
of the exam. Many will be excited as they pass, others who fail are about to be
extremely depressed. In terms of the new curriculum, the Education and Culture
Ministry eventually revised its challenging plan owing to pervasive public
protest.
This year’s Education Day celebration is instrumental in fostering visionary education in response to problematic educational issues such as the national exam and the new curriculum. I opine on some crucial points in our attempt to put visionary education into practice.
First, establishing an integrated school and society. Society needs to take a role in criticizing and contributing to formal schooling and also provide various models of education for children. While the country’s formal schooling system remains centralized, rigid and resistant to innovation from the public, various movements and alternative educational innovations currently springing from the grass roots should be appreciated as representing civic resistance and disappointment.
Home-school communities, learning networks with an alternative educational approach and online learning facilities are necessary. Such initiatives may still be regarded as shadow education arising from distrust toward the school system. Along with their rapid growth, however, alternative education models have the potential to be equivalent options among parents for their kids’ education.
Yet, an integrated school and society must not cold-shoulder the family role. Ki Hajar Dewantara reminded us of the limitations of a partial intellectuality and knowledge without incorporating social education at home. It is saddening that a family lets the school take over moral education and social building since it is first and foremost a zone of education.
Second, revising the curriculum. Curriculum needs revision owing to overloaded subjects taught to students. It is often the case that teaching materials no longer keep to the age of students, which in turn paves the way for memorizing instead of an understanding-based approach.
The current education system is too heavily focused on rote learning, which has outlived its usefulness. Precise and accurate identification of the problems in education is so expected that curriculum revision gets connected to the challenges of the current era. Forced character education in every subject needs to be shunned.
Curriculum revision must take the competence of teachers into account. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2010 reported that top ranked countries in education give serious attention to improving teacher quality, like China, Canada, Finland, Japan and Singapore.
Finland recruits teachers from the top 10 percent of college graduates, while Canada 30 percent. This is possible as the teaching profession gets high appreciation, which is transferable to income received. For improving competence, teachers receive training in Singapore for 100 hours per year, while teachers get 240-hour-training within five years in Shanghai. By contrast, our teachers receive much less training, particularly those in elementary schools.
More heterogeneous classes concerning students’ academic ability become distinctive features in these countries. Shanghai and Hong Kong have nullified the final exam at elementary schools owing to the fact that it hampers kids’ creativity and innovation. Standing in vivid contrast against China, Indonesia uses the national exam (UN) for the selection of students for each education level, even for those at elementary school who will go on to junior high level. Alternatively, Finland only conducts exams for those who would like to go to university.
The Education and Culture Ministry needs to work with teachers and employers in designing the new curriculum so that graduates meet the needs of industry and the modern economy. Our students are as talented and hard-working as students from other nations, but they are handicapped by an outdated education system.
Education has been the stepping-stone to success. Education is indeed not all about getting a job, but social and economic success often pivots on education. Lauding our educational zeal is believed to make our students have the ability to apply their learning to real life situations for a better future.
Third, improving fairness of education across the archipelago. The quality gap in education between Java and non-Java is still widening due to the absent transfer of teachers from Java to regions and limited local capacity in the post-decentralization of education. Advanced regions move forward, while the lagging ones lag farther behind. As a result, many teachers undergo limited mobility, both horizontally and vertically.
On behalf of local autonomy, teachers could not go through horizontal mobility by working in inter-regional mechanism and vertical mobility to get higher posts in the ministry and culture office. Teachers are required to upgrade their geographical insights, which are only available through freely horizontal mobility.
Education is the only hope for this country to eliminate exclusivity. However, this expectation would be in vain as education falls into modes of sectarianism and primordialism. Hence, it is urgent that the education and culture ministry facilitates the exchange of teachers, supervisors and department heads between regions, mainly from regions with surplus to those with a minus of human resources. ●
This year’s Education Day celebration is instrumental in fostering visionary education in response to problematic educational issues such as the national exam and the new curriculum. I opine on some crucial points in our attempt to put visionary education into practice.
First, establishing an integrated school and society. Society needs to take a role in criticizing and contributing to formal schooling and also provide various models of education for children. While the country’s formal schooling system remains centralized, rigid and resistant to innovation from the public, various movements and alternative educational innovations currently springing from the grass roots should be appreciated as representing civic resistance and disappointment.
Home-school communities, learning networks with an alternative educational approach and online learning facilities are necessary. Such initiatives may still be regarded as shadow education arising from distrust toward the school system. Along with their rapid growth, however, alternative education models have the potential to be equivalent options among parents for their kids’ education.
Yet, an integrated school and society must not cold-shoulder the family role. Ki Hajar Dewantara reminded us of the limitations of a partial intellectuality and knowledge without incorporating social education at home. It is saddening that a family lets the school take over moral education and social building since it is first and foremost a zone of education.
Second, revising the curriculum. Curriculum needs revision owing to overloaded subjects taught to students. It is often the case that teaching materials no longer keep to the age of students, which in turn paves the way for memorizing instead of an understanding-based approach.
The current education system is too heavily focused on rote learning, which has outlived its usefulness. Precise and accurate identification of the problems in education is so expected that curriculum revision gets connected to the challenges of the current era. Forced character education in every subject needs to be shunned.
Curriculum revision must take the competence of teachers into account. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2010 reported that top ranked countries in education give serious attention to improving teacher quality, like China, Canada, Finland, Japan and Singapore.
Finland recruits teachers from the top 10 percent of college graduates, while Canada 30 percent. This is possible as the teaching profession gets high appreciation, which is transferable to income received. For improving competence, teachers receive training in Singapore for 100 hours per year, while teachers get 240-hour-training within five years in Shanghai. By contrast, our teachers receive much less training, particularly those in elementary schools.
More heterogeneous classes concerning students’ academic ability become distinctive features in these countries. Shanghai and Hong Kong have nullified the final exam at elementary schools owing to the fact that it hampers kids’ creativity and innovation. Standing in vivid contrast against China, Indonesia uses the national exam (UN) for the selection of students for each education level, even for those at elementary school who will go on to junior high level. Alternatively, Finland only conducts exams for those who would like to go to university.
The Education and Culture Ministry needs to work with teachers and employers in designing the new curriculum so that graduates meet the needs of industry and the modern economy. Our students are as talented and hard-working as students from other nations, but they are handicapped by an outdated education system.
Education has been the stepping-stone to success. Education is indeed not all about getting a job, but social and economic success often pivots on education. Lauding our educational zeal is believed to make our students have the ability to apply their learning to real life situations for a better future.
Third, improving fairness of education across the archipelago. The quality gap in education between Java and non-Java is still widening due to the absent transfer of teachers from Java to regions and limited local capacity in the post-decentralization of education. Advanced regions move forward, while the lagging ones lag farther behind. As a result, many teachers undergo limited mobility, both horizontally and vertically.
On behalf of local autonomy, teachers could not go through horizontal mobility by working in inter-regional mechanism and vertical mobility to get higher posts in the ministry and culture office. Teachers are required to upgrade their geographical insights, which are only available through freely horizontal mobility.
Education is the only hope for this country to eliminate exclusivity. However, this expectation would be in vain as education falls into modes of sectarianism and primordialism. Hence, it is urgent that the education and culture ministry facilitates the exchange of teachers, supervisors and department heads between regions, mainly from regions with surplus to those with a minus of human resources. ●
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