This
article talks about the education of Indonesia, something that has been very
close to my life as a student of university. There are many views of people
from different backgrounds talking about education in this article. Besides,
this article reported the true condition of education in this country.
The article mainly wants to give a report
about how important education is for most Indonesians and about how they got
the view of the importance of education for their life. There first comes a
brief survey of UNESCO about the high level of illiteracy in Indonesia. Then,
there is an interview with a Metromini driver who has graduated from Senior
High School (SMA). The driver had ever thought that education is important but he
has changed. Also there are some analyses from the Ministry of Education about
where actually the wrong is that makes the education of Indonesia becomes not
efficient and does not become as what we hope.
Maggie Tiojakin as the reporter of the article wants to deliver
some messages especially to people who directly involved in educational life.
Firstly the main mistake lies on the system of Indonesia’s education, besides
the additional paradigm which has been rooted. Indonesia’s education system
separates the lesson at school from the reality. The system creates a
classification based to cognitive criteria only. Moreover, the lessons are too
many and heavy that people cannot afford for the supporting materials. These
factors make the poor avoids school, even from the elementary level.
The last but not least is the system of the studying itself and the
fee. Students are ordered to read, listen to teacher, small practice and
finally they just have to fill the blanks to get score, so that they can pass
the exam. Real life needs implementation of the knowledge students get at
school. The fee has also become a crucial factor that would stop the step of a
poor genius to taste education. Probably not the monthly fee but the X fees
after.
Education also
still does not become a priority in Indonesia. Though the constitution has
guaranteed the freedom of Indonesians to have the same rights of education, the
reality is the opposite. Compare to another developing country such as Malaysia
and Brunei Darussalam as our nearest neighbor, it seems clearly that they have
better education because they implement the fair system at least for the fee of
the education. The rich should pay more as they have more ability on this, also
in studying activity, appreciation to any skill of the students. Reparation of
the system of Indonesia’s education from the government will at least gain more
people to believe that education is truly a way for a brighter future, because
changing mindset of society will be more difficult to realize.