No International Standard for Public Schools

Public Schools in Indonesia are built, maintained and funded by the government under coordination of the Ministry of Education.

In order to upgrade the quality of those schools, the Ministry of Education has allowed few of those schools to adopt international standard of education. Such schools are named Laboratory Schools.

Later on, some other public schools also adopted the international standard.

On 8 January 2013, the Chief of the Constitutional Court Mahfud MD announced the legal basis for such kind of schools i.e. Article 50  (3) of the National Education Law No. 20/2003.
Mahfud MD was quoted by JNN as saying that the purpose is connection with national character building i.e the use of the word "international" will erode the nation's culture and language. Besides, the existence of such schools will cause discrimination between such schools and ordinary public schools.
However, Mahfud acknowledged the need to learn the English language and the output of such schools are good quality students.

My understanding is that the above decision of the Constitutional Court is valid for the state control and subsidized public schools like the Laboratory Schools, BUT not for international standard Private Schools which never receive any support from the state.

Picture : International Education symbol courtesy of 123RF

The National Examinations

Since last Monday, 16 April, my son Virya has been facing examination organized by his school i.e a private elementary school in Pondok Indah, South Jakarta.

Today is the last day of said examination, and I am sure that Virya is very happy about it, this is shown on his bright face when I drove him to school this morning.

He has every reasons to be happy because he could temporarily rest and relax from from studying very hard every day to prepare for the said exams.

But, this rest and relax is only temporarily because Virya still has to study hard to prepare for the National Examination next May.

The legal basis for the National Examinations is the National Education System Law No 23/2003, Article 58, which stipulated that evaluation of Students and Education Units and Programs should be carried out periodically, generally, transparently and systemically by an independent institution. The purpose is to achieve national standard qualifications.
 
Implementation of this law regulated by Government Regulation No. 19/2005 regarding Standard Education System, Articles 63, 66, 69.
 
The problem is that the implementation of the the National Examination doesn't seems to be smooth. This can be seen from the fact that every year i.e. before and during the National Examinations, the news media have been reporting about problems arising, among others about the leak of some exam materials, about eligibility of participants etc.

Considering the fact that good standard quality education is very important for the development of our nation, I hope that the government would make sure that the National Examination would be carried out properly and smoothly in the future.

National Education Day 2011

Indonesia has been commemorating 2 May as its National Education Day since 1908, and every time I would always think about the quality of education in our country.

Around 30 years ago, higher education fees were not so expensive. First class state universities/institutes like University of Indonesia (U.I) and Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) only charged entrance fees of not more that a few millions of Rupiah, compared today which can be as high as 75-100 Million Rupiah or even more. 

I am not sure whether the quality of education at that time was a lot much lower than it is today, but I know for sure that at that time we were able to sent lecturers, medical doctors and engineers to Malaysia and Middle East countries.

Whereas today we only sent lesser skilled labors to work as house maids, constructions and plantations workers abroad.

So, is the quality of our education today higher that before ?

Educational Day

Today is the Second of May and people in Indonesia celebrate the Educational Day.

Considering that today is Sunday, I would like to quote lyric of refrain of the song "Another Brick in the Wall Part II " written and performed by British rock band Pink Floyd :

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey teachers leave them kids alone!
All in all you're just another brick in the wall
All in all you're just another brick in the wall

This is a protest song against rigid Schooling  in general and Boarding schools in particular which has led  the song being banned by the Apartheid regime in South Africa in 1980.

I hope that the above lyrics do not reflect the conditions of some schools and boarding schools in Indonesia, I'll keep fingers crossed.

Expensive Education Leads to Suicide

The news media have been reporting about very young children committing suicide because they were very disappointed becase their parents cannot afford to pay expensive school fees.

Recently, Kompas reported that a third grade student of a Junior High School in Pasuruan, East Java, has attempted to commit suicide because his parents have no money to pay for his further study.

I hope that the central and local governments and members of parliaments would start thinking about ways to make education in Indonesia more affordable for all the people.

Another Financial Problem over Education in Indonesia Leading to Suicide 

Senin, 5 April 2010 | 07:26 WIB

PASURUAN, KOMPAS.com - A local junior high school student tried to commit suicide  by taking an influenza medication with soft drink after finishing his national exam as his parents could not afford to finance further study.  Ainul Basori, a third grade student at Nguling junior high school (SMPN 3), Pasuruan, East Java, was found unconscious with the rest of a soft drink and drug at his grandmother’s house near his house in Karangnongko Hamlet, Cukurgondang village, Grati sub-district, on Saturday.

Basori was rushed to nearest public health clinic. He said  his action was prompted by his disappointment for not being able to continue his study to a higher level at Nguling Vocational School (SMKN) after his parents told him that they could not afford it.
   
Joko Sastro, the father, admitted that he was incapable to pay for his oldest son’s registration at Nguling vocational high school due to his minimum income to support his two siblings. Joko had been relying on the government’s program of Family Hope Program (PKH), but because Basori is now entering high school, the assistance had to be stopped.

Educational Legal Entity

On 31 March, the Constitutional Court annulled the Educational Legal Entity Law No. 9/2009 saying that  it is against the Constitution 1945 because it failed to recognize disparities among Indonesia's educational institutions to generate funding to support its activities.

Considering that the National Educational System Law 2003 stipulates that organizers of educational institutions should be legal entities, in which the form shall be ruled by an educational legal entity law, obviously the annulment caused confusion among the educational institutions.

Due to this fact, the government is currently preparing a draft of a new educational legal entity bill.

For details, please click here, here and here.

I hope that the government would draft a new educational legal entity law that would the costs for study  at state owned educational institutions much lower than it is today, that way more people can enjoy good quality educations.

The Supreme Court Bans National Exam

On 24 November, the Supreme Court announced a verdict which rules that the government cannot administer National Schools Examination anymore unless the quality of education has been improved.

The verdict, passed on 24 September, instructed the government to improve teaching standards and school facilities, as well as to provide all students nationwide with equal and full access to information, before it could conduct national exams.

The case itself began in 2007 when a group of students' parents filed a lawsuit with the District Court of Central Jakarta requesting for the prohibition of national examinations at Junior and Senior High Schools.
The lawsuit accused the state of denying the students the right to an education because they were unable to attend university after failing the national exam. It also said the exam was unfair because education standards were not uniform across the country. Besides, although the students study 13 subjects in all, only three of them — Mathematics, Indonesian and English — are tested during the exam.

For detailed media reports, please click here and here.

I hope that the Supreme Court's verdict would persuade the government, especially the Department of Education, to make its best efforts improve the education system in Indonesia.

Underage Prostitution

This morning I read a shocking news in Detik about the expulsion of 18 female students of a Junior High School ( SMP ) located in West Jakarta for alleged Prostitution practice.

Although the news did not mention about their age, but generally the age of Junior High School students would range from 12 to 16 years old, thus obviously under aged to make any money, and certainly not by selling their bodies.
According to the Head of the Jakarta Education Agency Taufik Yudi, those girls were not expelled but they resigned voluntarily from the school because they have now realized that they have made mistakes. They will be sent to the Center for Community Study Activity (PKBM), where they will be given formal social education under the guidance of the Jakarta Education Agency, and will receive a Junior High School diploma.
Further, Taufik said that this case has been known by his agency, the school and the Department of Education since November 2008. He also said that those students were only victims of Pimps (Sex Mediator) and Sex Seekers, whereby they were lured to sell their bodies in exchange for money. Therefore, those Pimps and Sex Seekers should be arrested. He hopes that the change of school entry time to 6.30 would bring improvement to the Moral, Ethics, and Religious belief of the students.

In view of the above, I think that focusing attention on how to improve the morality of the students would only temporarily stop Underage Prostitution practice. As long as there are Pimps and Sex Seekers who will make use of them, such practice will always exist.

Back to School

Today, 5 January 2009, students in Jakarta return to their school again after spending a long Christmas, Muslim New Year and International New Year holidays.

And due to the rumors that have been spreading in the past few months about the change of School Entry Time from 7.00 am to 6.30 am, yesterday I called my son’s teacher and was informed that there is no change. Therefore, this morning me and my son left our home at 6.15 and arrived at the school at 6.30, and found that everything, including traffic condition, is still the same as usual.
But considering that serious preparation for said change has been made, a.o. by providing 34 special Free of Charge School Bus, I was curious about it. So I browsed the Net and found that there is still no certainty about the school time. Some schools have adjusted their schedules, but many others have not done so.
Tempo wrote that this morning the traffic is still jammed in spite of the change in school entry time. While Kompas wrote that the School Buses are still empty, and quoted some teachers as saying that this change of time would cause problems for the teachers not the children. This is obvious because many teachers are living far away from their schools, and they also have children of their own that they should take care.
Further, Detik wrote that some schools still adopt the same entry time as before.

Considering the above, I assume that the uncertainty of the change of school time is caused by the fact that the Jakarta government has still not issued a regulation about this. In this regards, I remember an article in Bisnis which quoted the Vice Governor of Jakarta Priyanto as saying that such regulation should be issued by 5 December 2008. Until then we can only hope that the said regulation will treat everyone i.e. students-their parents and teachers wisely. Beside that, hopefully better efforts would be made to solve the traffic jam problem such as by building more roads, and realizing the long pending Monorail construction, and Subway.

Image:BigFoto

Earlier School Hours

The Traffic Condition in Jakarta and vicinity is getting worse from day to day! Especially during the rainy season, when most traffic lights are not working and many roads are flooded and/or blocked by tree branches/leaves that fell down after being struck by very strong wind blow.

Actually, the Jakarta government has made efforts to address the chronic traffic congestion, however the problem doesn't seem to decrease. The Busway Transportation system was built on existing roads, therefore in stead of lessening, it has worsened the traffic jam. While construction of the Mono Rail project has to be stopped due to uncertain financing policy and current global financial crisis.
Cornered by this never ending problem, the Jakarta government lately decided to shift school hours 30 minutes earlier. This decision is based on the result of a 7 months survey conducted by the administration with a transportation engineering and management consultant firm PT. Pamintori Cipta, students and teachers traveling to school contribute 14 percent to traffic congestion between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. in Jakarta. The Jakarta Post quoted the Jakarta Vice Governor Prijanto as saying that the Jakarta government will issue a Decree which regulates that starting 5 January 2009, after students of Elementary, Junior High and Senior High levels return to school from the December holiday, school children will have to arrive at the school by 6:30 a.m. instead of the current time of 7 a.m.

As a father who drove my son to school every morning, I am disappointed with this plan. Because if it is realized, my son would have to wake up 30 minutes earlier, thus he has to reduce 30 minutes of his usual sleeping time. However, if the government could implement concrete contingency plan to cure the traffic jam, for example by realizing the Monorail, the Subway system, and build more roads, then me and my son would not regret sacrificing some of our sleeping time for the good sake of our society.

Pic:FreeFoto