Kalla blamed the poor quality of education in Indonesia on a lack of desire to learn

By Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia correspondent

KUALA LUMPUR, February 17 (IslamOnline.net) – Worried about the quality of the education system and its impact on youths, Indonesia urged schools and universities to prepare fresh curriculum and to engage young children in story telling and reading.

Indonesian Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla on Monday, February 16, blamed the poor quality of education in the country on a lack of desire to learn, reported the Antara news agency.

His comments drew fire from some quarters, particularly teachers and parents who said the government was responsible for the unsatisfactory quality of education in the country.

"The minister is saying that corrupt school officials, underpaid teachers and exorbitant tuition fees imposed on the poor people are not contributing to the failure in the education system," said Zamri Abdullah, who heads a private school in Jakarta.

He told IslamOnline.net that the authorities are looking at the problem from the wrong angle and that a good education system in Indonesia depends on how strong the government is in fighting corruption.

A recent UNESCO report said the shortcomings of Indonesia’s education system include poor teacher training, an excessive and poorly designed curriculum, the reliance of many schools on financial contributions from parents, and insufficient provision of textbooks and tuition subsidies in poor communities.

It added that Indonesian students were the weakest in South East Asia (SEA) and that the drop out rate was the highest in the country.

"This is so because there is no real educational program. Almost everything education in this country is based on an old and non-practical education plan that dates decades ago," said Zamri.

Corruption

The minister said he firmly believed there was a major disinterest in broadening knowledge among students that was the culprit behind the dissatisfactory quality of education.

He said all educational boards or committees from the elementary level to university level should help improve the quality of education by encouraging their students to read and to broaden their knowledge base.

Kalla explained that the modest level of interest on the part of students was mainly caused by the absence of rewards for those who were diligent.

Many schools award certificates to all students who attend exams, as long as they have paid their tuition fees, said the minister adding that such a practice does not motivate students.

A recent scandal exposed the fact that even universities were giving away diplomas to potential election candidates.

"This showed that corruption was all over the place in the education sector," said Buntiano Suparman, another educator who teaches in a government school on the outskirt of Jakarta.

He told IOL that the dissatisfactory level of education in the country will have to be tackled immediately in order to save the children of the new generations.

"We have a powerful tool in our hands, it’s the workforce, yet this workforce is poor in education, this country will not pull out of its crisis if this is not corrected," said Suparman.

He asserted that working for a government institution, he had an overall idea of what the government was capable of in this sector.

Suparman agreed that corrupt practices in the education sector were detrimental to the progress of education in the country.

He noted that it was not strange to see that some provinces in Indonesia had already invested heavy resources in solving their education problems and had better curriculum than Jakarta altogether.

A 2003 education statistics report, published by UNESCO Institute for Statistics, said Indonesian children were among 46 million children in South and East Asia who were out of school, with more girls (28 million) than boys (18 million) kept from elementary education.

The number of children who complete elementary school does not necessarily reflect the number of students admitted to the secondary schools, the report said.

It added that elementary school dropouts account for 7 percent of Indonesia's 26 million children, the highest among Southeast Asian member states.

Most of the earlier leavers quit elementary school when they were in their fifth year, with Indonesia second in the list with 95 percent after Iran (98 percent).

Vietnam was third with 86 percent, followed by Bangladesh (65 percent) and Cambodia (63 percent).

The report also saw Indonesia ranked behind Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia in the percentage of children -- aged between seven years and 12 years old -- enrolled in elementary school.

It said Indonesia fared better than fellow densely populated Asian countries Bangladesh, Iran, Pakistan, China and India.

UNESCO noted higher participation of private institutions in managing elementary schools in Asia, with 43 percent of elementary schools in Indonesia privately run,  42 percent in India, 23 percent in the Philippines and 96 percent in Bangladesh.

The 88-page report revealed an estimated 233 million students in South and East Asia enrolled in secondary school, only an average of 50 percent of those eligible to attend schools.