Education In Indonesia

Talk about education reminds me of the first teaching. It all started as soon as a young child named Indonesia entered kindergarten. When it was time for the drawing class, his teachers always taught him that a mountain must be forever triangular in shape and the sun constantly rise from its back. Furthermore, the teacher would reprimand him if he decorated the coloring sheets passed through the drawing line. Then when Indonesia joined elementary school (Sekolah Dasar, SD), for the first time he was taught to read sentences. Usually the common sentences for reading practices would be like this;

    “Ini Budi; Ini bapak Budi; Ini ibu Budi; Bapak pergi bekerja ke kantor, dan Ibu bekerja memasak di dapur”

and if they were translated to English, the sentences would be;

    “This is Budi; This is Budi’s father; This is Budi’s mother; Father goes to work to the office and mother cooks in the kitchen”

In addition to describe their meaning, generally the above sentences are followed by some images. But, the most interesting picture is always the one which is used to portray Budi’s father and his office, because Indonesia would spot an image of a man wearing a tie and a suit carrying a suitcase, in a well furnished room (fully equipped with air conditioner, telephone and a personal computer) which is used to represent his office. I wonder what would happen for a child of a garbage man if she/he listens to this rubbish illustration. Furthermore, the phrase “mother cooks in the kitchen” triggers gender discrimination, internalizing Indonesia and a lot of his friend understanding that girls (women)are only suitable for domestic activity.

Of these explanations education quality in Indonesia is very poor because of it’s system, fees, and human resources. As the wrong teaching method that teacher use to their all students.  So, no wonder that today many Indonesian students memorize a formula but never knew what the application, they also know the name of the poet and his work but never read the works of literature let alone appreciate, they know how to convert units of degrees Fahrenheit to degrees Celsius, but never know how to use a thermometer, they know the term photosynthesis but never looked at it, they memorize historical dates but it failed to learn from history, they know about reforestation, but never even learned to plant trees and care for her.

Nevertheless, generalization assumptions about education in Indonesia is something that has no scientific basis. Education activities in Indonesia experienced a variety of striking growth between rural and urban areas. The difference is the speed of education grew strongly influenced by the level of population growth and economic growth rates in each - each region. Areas that are now grown into urban areas has increased the quality of education better and advanced than the territory - territory that until now is still a rural area.

The difference happens to be very far between, such as Jakarta and the island a thousand, or, for example between Jakarta and parts of Papua. Therefore, in my opinion, no one scale that can be used to generalize the education in Indonesia. Even if it was imposed it would happen "dishonesty" in view of Indonesia as a state entity, or maybe a kind of "selfishness" in the name of the theory.

So in my opinion, education in Indonesia is the world that has many advantages and many left behind.  Society also reserves the right to propose matters of teaching in school systems, school policies that deviate (extortion, levy books, etc..) Should also be reported to the protests or even more competent superiors. With the active participation of society, one day, education in Indonesia could be more advanced. Life is education and education is life.