http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/2013/02/201321965257154992.html
Educating Indonesia
101 East investigates why Indonesia's education system is one of the worst in
the world.
101 East Last Modified: 22 Feb 2013 08:45
Participants in Indonesia Mengajar, a programme funded by private corporations
and run by prominent university educator Anies Baswedan, are given army
survival training before being deployed. But they are not soldiers; they are
educated professionals sent to remote corners of the archipelago to teach as
volunteers in some of Indonesia's most impoverished schools.
The volunteer teachers must deal with one of the worst education systems in the
world. Indonesia recently ranked last in a landmark education report that
measured literacy, test results, graduation rates and other key benchmarks in
50 nations. Only a third of Indonesian students - in a country where 57 million
attend school - complete basic schooling and the education system is plagued by
poor teaching and corruption.
Connect with 101 East
Indonesian educators and commentators have slammed the country's school system
for placing more emphasis on rote learning than creative thinking. A culture of
teaching anchored in obedience as well as a rigid approach to religious studies
and assigned reading have been described as major problems.
Education experts say less than half of the country's teachers possess even the
minimum qualifications to teach properly and teacher absenteeism hovers at
around 20 percent. Many teachers in the public school system work outside of
the classroom to improve their incomes.
Only 51 percent of Indonesian teachers have the right qualifications to teach
[Al Jazeera/Karima Anjani]
Corruption is also rife within schools and universities - with parents often
having to pay bribes for their children to pass examinations or pay for
services that should be provided by the state.
Indonesian Corruption Watch claims there are very few schools in the country
that are clean of graft, bribery or embezzlement - with 40 percent of their
budget siphoned off before it reaches the classroom.
Meanwhile, millions of dollars in foreign aid is poured into the country's
education system despite the government spending only a very small proportion
of its GDP on schooling. And some international observers are asking why
Indonesia still relies on external funding for school construction given that
it has been listed as a middle income country by the World Bank.
Responding to its critics, the Indonesian government is introducing a new
curriculum in an effort to simplify education, slash drop-out rates and produce
more PhDs. One of the government's most controversial proposals has been to
abolish or postpone the teaching of science, geography and English in
elementary schools and to instead introduce compulsory subjects that promote
national identity and patriotic values.
Many educators are concerned that this could push Indonesia back to the Stone
Age in a rapidly globalising world. They argue that a child's early years are
the time to provide them with a more formative education using critical
thinking, especially considering the high drop-out rates after primary school.
But the government has defended the changes to the curriculum by arguing that
they are trying to simplify a school system that has been criticised for
overwhelming elementary students with too many subjects.
101 East investigates the world's fourth largest education system and asks what
can be done to improve schooling in one of the fastest-growing economies where
a third of the population is school-aged.
101 East airs each week at the following times GMT: Thursday: 2230;
Friday: 0930; Saturday: 0330; Sunday: 1630.
Click here for more 101 East
Source:
Al Jazeera
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