November is a time to contemplate the future of the next generation. World Children’s Day falls on November 20 and Indonesians observe National Teachers Day on November 25. The two are intrinsically linked and it would be timely to look at how the education system has evolved since independence, 75 years ago. Sadly, despite vastly improved access to primary and secondary schooling, poor learning outcomes point to a problem with the quality of our educational system. National standardized tests administered to grade 8 students in 2019 revealed low standards of reading proficiency and mathematics. According to the OECD’s 2018 PISA learning assessment survey, only 30% of 15-year-old Indonesian children reached or exceeded the minimum proficiency level in reading. This does not augur well for those of us in the literary field. Indeed, the results suggest that the quality of schooling in Indonesia requires significant upgrading to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals-4 (SDG4).
So what is the crux of the problem? Are state-imposed curricula to blame? Or is it under-trained and under-paid teachers? Many would point to the failure of local governments to allocate the required 20% of their budget to schools as mandated by the Indonesian Constitution. Simply speaking, the problem rests with all of the above. This is the colossal and complex challenge facing our youthful education minister, who has on many occasions promised to initiate a “total reform” of the education system. To put things in perspective, that involves 217, 270 schools and 2.7 million teachers serving more than 4.4 million students. Given the poor student performance compared with those of neighboring countries, much of the focus should be on the quality of teaching. Official data shows that barely 2.3%t of the 16,600 part-time teachers, who comprise a third of the total number, meet an acceptable level of proficiency.
The plan to improve the education system in Indonesia is off to a good start with the government recently announcing that part-time teachers would get paid on time and that their paychecks would be on a par with full time teaching staff. Amen to that.
Stay safe and remember to support Lontar in its efforts to promote literacy in Indonesia.
Yuli Ismartono
yismartono@lontar.org