May 03, 2008
Ing ngarso sung tulodo
Ing madyo mangun karso
Tut wuri handayani
(In front, giving example
In the middle, building work
In the back, giving support)
These three Javanese sentences are from Raden Mas Soewardi Soerjaningrat, who later changed his name to Ki Hadjar Dewantara, and whose birthday, May 2, 1889, we celebrate as National Education Day.
Before stepping into education, Ki Hadjar Dewantara was active in politics through organizations including Boedi Oetomo, whose establishment on May 20, 1908, we celebrate as National Awakening Day.
Because of his writings in 1913, critical of the Dutch ruler, he was exiled to Bangka Island, and later to the Netherlands. Upon his return, he established the educational institution Tamansiswa on July 3, 1922, which would later be regarded as the foundation of the national education system.
As we celebrate National Education Day today, it is worth reflecting once again on the history of our education and its development, and to see what we can do to "raise the intellectual capacity of the nation", as stipulated in the preamble to the Constitution.
Looking at the figures, we would be proud to see the massive improvements made from the time of Ki Hadjar Dewantara, when education was the realm of the chosen few, to our present time, when most of the nation has access to education.
The biggest improvement of all was recorded during the New Order administration under president Soeharto, who pursued equality in education policies.
Soeharto built hundreds of thousands of schools to improve access to education and later launched the mandatory basic education for all. The result was an improved national adult literacy rate of over 90 percent.
However, Soeharto was only interested in numbers, in quantity, and he did less in improving the quality of education. Worse yet, schools and teachers during this time were just an extension of the New Order's political puppeteers, and the students were at the receiving end of their machinations.
Education under Soeharto, as it turned out, was vastly different from Ki Hadjar Dewantara's teachings, whose essence was character building.
During the reform movement that followed Soeharto's downfall, political leaders tried to change the education system by making it more humane and also, unfortunately, more religious.
The first thing they did was to amend the Constitution by inserting a number of stipulations, including one on mandatory basic education, another requiring 20 percent of the budget for education and another mentioning the importance of science and technology.
The amendment also included the aim of national education, i.e. "enhancing religious and pious feelings as well as moral excellence with a view to raising the intellectual capacity of the nation."
And the result of this amendment is that the state is obliged to provide religious education for all students, something we find unnecessary.
Ten years after reformasi, our state of education has not moved much, despite the soaring costs. On many issues, it has remained the same or gotten worse.
True, Indonesia lies at the higher end of the list for East Asia in terms of Education for All Development Index, published by UNESCO, ranking above Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines, and below South Korea and China.
True, some of our best students have won international awards, including in the recent Asian Physics Olympiad. But truth be told, many of those award-winning students come from the elite schools.
The majority of our students still struggle with the mounting burden of school subjects, as our education system continues to treat them like lifeless objects.
Also, the national examination, introduced recently as the main requirement for students to graduate from secondary and high schools, has became an additional burden for many students and parents alike. For them, it's a nightmare.
The national exams, however, have nothing to do with character building or instilling moral integrity. On the contrary, they encourage cheating among students, and even teachers, and corruption at the very highest levels, by leaking the test papers.
All in all, despite the improving situation and curriculum, our education system still doesn't produce humane students with strong characters, but rather robot-like students.
Once again, we've failed to uphold the philosophical teachings of Ki Hadjar Dewantara, which puts students at the center, as the focus of the teaching-learning process.
Teachers in front should lead through examples, in the middle should work together with students, and in the back provide support.
It's time now for us to move toward a more humane education, one that treats students as human beings, builds their character and, most of all, raises the intellectual capacity of the nation. (Source)
Ing ngarso sung tulodo
Ing madyo mangun karso
Tut wuri handayani
(In front, giving example
In the middle, building work
In the back, giving support)
These three Javanese sentences are from Raden Mas Soewardi Soerjaningrat, who later changed his name to Ki Hadjar Dewantara, and whose birthday, May 2, 1889, we celebrate as National Education Day.
Before stepping into education, Ki Hadjar Dewantara was active in politics through organizations including Boedi Oetomo, whose establishment on May 20, 1908, we celebrate as National Awakening Day.
Because of his writings in 1913, critical of the Dutch ruler, he was exiled to Bangka Island, and later to the Netherlands. Upon his return, he established the educational institution Tamansiswa on July 3, 1922, which would later be regarded as the foundation of the national education system.
As we celebrate National Education Day today, it is worth reflecting once again on the history of our education and its development, and to see what we can do to "raise the intellectual capacity of the nation", as stipulated in the preamble to the Constitution.
Looking at the figures, we would be proud to see the massive improvements made from the time of Ki Hadjar Dewantara, when education was the realm of the chosen few, to our present time, when most of the nation has access to education.
The biggest improvement of all was recorded during the New Order administration under president Soeharto, who pursued equality in education policies.
Soeharto built hundreds of thousands of schools to improve access to education and later launched the mandatory basic education for all. The result was an improved national adult literacy rate of over 90 percent.
However, Soeharto was only interested in numbers, in quantity, and he did less in improving the quality of education. Worse yet, schools and teachers during this time were just an extension of the New Order's political puppeteers, and the students were at the receiving end of their machinations.
Education under Soeharto, as it turned out, was vastly different from Ki Hadjar Dewantara's teachings, whose essence was character building.
During the reform movement that followed Soeharto's downfall, political leaders tried to change the education system by making it more humane and also, unfortunately, more religious.
The first thing they did was to amend the Constitution by inserting a number of stipulations, including one on mandatory basic education, another requiring 20 percent of the budget for education and another mentioning the importance of science and technology.
The amendment also included the aim of national education, i.e. "enhancing religious and pious feelings as well as moral excellence with a view to raising the intellectual capacity of the nation."
And the result of this amendment is that the state is obliged to provide religious education for all students, something we find unnecessary.
Ten years after reformasi, our state of education has not moved much, despite the soaring costs. On many issues, it has remained the same or gotten worse.
True, Indonesia lies at the higher end of the list for East Asia in terms of Education for All Development Index, published by UNESCO, ranking above Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines, and below South Korea and China.
True, some of our best students have won international awards, including in the recent Asian Physics Olympiad. But truth be told, many of those award-winning students come from the elite schools.
The majority of our students still struggle with the mounting burden of school subjects, as our education system continues to treat them like lifeless objects.
Also, the national examination, introduced recently as the main requirement for students to graduate from secondary and high schools, has became an additional burden for many students and parents alike. For them, it's a nightmare.
The national exams, however, have nothing to do with character building or instilling moral integrity. On the contrary, they encourage cheating among students, and even teachers, and corruption at the very highest levels, by leaking the test papers.
All in all, despite the improving situation and curriculum, our education system still doesn't produce humane students with strong characters, but rather robot-like students.
Once again, we've failed to uphold the philosophical teachings of Ki Hadjar Dewantara, which puts students at the center, as the focus of the teaching-learning process.
Teachers in front should lead through examples, in the middle should work together with students, and in the back provide support.
It's time now for us to move toward a more humane education, one that treats students as human beings, builds their character and, most of all, raises the intellectual capacity of the nation. (Source)
Technorati Tags: religious education, education, pendidikan agama, HARDIKNAS
0 comments:
Post a Comment