Many Indonesians got a pause yesterday, not a pleasant one, of how their representatives in the House plan to promote a better nation. The House finally passed the controversial education bill into law after it has postponed its ratification on May 2, May 20 and June 10.

The bill had sparked a widespread debate across the country. There were pros and cons. The pros said that the bill promotes human rights. The cons raised the same concern. The pros said it is about religious tolerance. The cons said the same concern. The pros raised concern of a hidden agenda of a certain group to spread their religion. The cons, to a greater extend, raised the same concern. So, what’s the problem?

If one was new to the debate, she might have gotten an impression that the topic was about religion, not education. She was right and wrong. She was right not to have a wrong impression. After all, for weeks debates have focused on a religious matter. If one had asked me about the bill, all I knew was just the controversial Article 13, section 1. Article 13(1) stipulates that all students are entitled to religious instruction according to their religion, taught by teachers of the same religion. While it applies to all religions, the bill, which now becomes a law, essentially rules that Christian schools have to provide Islamic education for Muslim students attending the schools. A quick inspection, by counting the words, illustrates that the emphasis of the Article is on religion not on education. I have no clue about the rest of the new law.  But don’t blame me, perhaps, as John Lennon said, ”I am not the only one.”

For years, our national education system has been a mess. Problems include the lack of teachers and the limited budget on education. The nation’s spending on education as a percentage of the national output is one of the lowest in Asia. Other concerns are the poor quality of teachers, inadequate books and the low quality of institutions of higher learning. According to a survey conducted by Asiaweek in 2000, of 77 multi-disciplinary schools in Asia and Oceania, University of Indonesia and Gajah Mada University, the best performers from Indonesia, were ranked at number 61 and 68, respectively. Kyoto University was number 1 and National University of Singapore was number 4. According to the survey, ours were behind of those of Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. University of Malaya, Malaysia, was 41, University of the Philippines was 48 and Thammasat University, Thailand was 51.

The low quality of college and university graduates is also another concern. From 1982 to 1998, unemployment rates of educated labor force continued to increase while those of less educated workers were decreasing, a trend that is likely to occur during the last five years (see Pengangguran Tenaga Kerja Terdidik). In the early 90s, the former Ministry of education Wardiman Djojonegoro had tried to resolve the problem by introducing a concept of link and match. The concept, however, was a failure as the mismatch between labor market and education, especially higher learning continues to widen.

The latest results from the nationally administered final exams for senior high school only add another problem to an already messy business. Nationally, about 10.6% of the regular high school students who participated in the exam were failed. Disgraceful results occurred in Sumatra Barat, Nusa Tenggara Timur and Sulawesi Utara. The failure rates are 30%, 29.54% and 26.47%, respectively. That means out of 37,522 of high school students in Sumatra Barat who took the test, 12,044 were failed. This number is not a joke. It is a serious problem. If one out of three high school students cannot pass her/his final exam, there is a serious problem with our educational system. The failure rate for vocational high school is even worse. Almost a half of vocational high school students in Nusa Tenggara Timur could not pass the test. Nationally, there were 900 thousands of regular and 500 thousands of vocational high school students who took the test. That means almost 100 thousands of regular high school students were failed in their final exam. The failure figure for vocational high school students is about the same.

According to Dikmenti Suharyanto, the national head of vocational school program, Mathematics is the main determinant of students’s failure in the test, followed by English course. About 25% of the failed vocational high school students were due to their poor performance in Mathematics. In one regular high school in Jakarta, 17 of 20 the test takers were failed due to their weak performance in English.

A simple proposition to resolve this problem is to improve the quality of teachers, redesign curriculum and add more qualified teachers on the two subjects.  All implies more spending. But the new enacted law also implies more of the same. Government has to deploy 100,000 religious teachers.  Minister of Religious Affairs Said Agiel Munawar said that the government is ready to deploy 30,000 additional teachers, where their salaries will be taken out of the state budget, in order to anticipate a shortage in the case that the education bill is passed into law. Additional 70,000 teachers will be recruited from the Ministry of National Education.

Are we going to improve our education system or create another mess?

Challenges

Ours is not only a rapidly changing era but also a technologically demanding one. The globalization occurred in many aspects from economy to technology means a ferocious competition in almost all aspects. The fundamental key to survival and prosperity in the twenty first century is the ability to acquire knowledge, and education is the means to do that. The fundamental purpose of education is to teach students how to imagine, think, analyze and propose solutions to problems as well as how to behave.

To be able to compete internationally, our entire population must be better educated than the populations of our competitors. Our secondary schools and colleges must strive for excellence in all fields and particularly in science and technology. Our universities and research institutions must have sufficient human and financial resources in order to be able to compete globally as well as to bring them closer to the business sector. Our teachers must be better teachers. Our students must become multi-lingual with English as the second language.  Every student will need to do things better than at present. The key to the future is in our today’s classrooms. The key to the better future is in our education.  

Consequently, the role of our national education in securing the welfare and future of young people was among the first priorities of our nation. Just like a monument, education endures not because of the bricks but because of what they represent. Its true foundations are neither of rock nor symbols, but of values such as liberty and freedom; a freedom to question and to explore answers to any question. Like good foundations those core values, which underpin education and the development of our society, must be solid and unchanging.

But the recent debate and the new bill have revealed something else. We tend to be more interested in symbols rather than addressing fundamental problems worsening our education system. Instead of taking care of our mess, politicians, leaders and many influential figures in society are trying to appease the mass.

As a nation, our huge task goes beyond improving education. We also have many other messes, from economy to security. Total unemployed workers in the country are almost 40 millions. The number of population living in poverty is about 40 millions. Since 1998, large numbers of persons in different parts of Indonesia have had to flee from one part of the country to another, primarily as a result of political conflict and ethnic violence. The number of officially recorded internally displaced persons in Indonesia today is more than one million. It is more than 20% of the total number of persons forcibly displaced by internal conflicts, inter-communal violence and related violations of human rights in Asia. Many are in need of basic assistance, protection and reintegration and development support.

Huge task demands sincerity, not dishonesty. It requires respect, not disrespect, for differences. It demands cooperation, not alienation of others.

We’ve been told that the new education law is about religious tolerance. It is not about one religion is trying to control the nation. But the partisan view in the House suggests many interpretations. All Islamic parties, except the National Awakening Party (PKB), which is former president Abdurrahman Wahid's party, strongly support the Bill. The ruling PDI-P (a nationalist party that has members from all religions) has requested a re-examination of the Bill. In Public Dialogue, TVRI, June 9, 2003, 7-8 p.m., former president Abdurrahman Wahid said bluntly that the unparalleled sectarian direction deeply involved in the bill was a tactic to erect an Islamic state. Mr. Wahid could be wrong.

The bill has been passed. But let’s not try to erase one suspicion only to create another one of different kind. And, let’s not focus on appeasing the mass instead of taking care of our mess. Isn't it the law of the land that: Anyone who does not take care of his mess will end up in smashed?