Baswedan, Anies 03-16
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“Higher Education as an Instrument for Structural Change in Indonesia” An Open Forum with Dr. Anies Baswedan Rector, Paramadina University March 16, 2012 On March 16 th , USINDO hosted an When Indonesia gained its independence Open Forum on higher education in in 1945, the illiteracy rate was 95%. Indonesia with Dr. Anies Baswedan as Indonesia had only 5 universities, 92 special guest speaker. USINDO Co- high schools, and 322 middle schools for Chair Emeritus Ed Masters moderated a population of 70 million. The the event. country’s education system was practically starting at zero. By 2010, the When Dr. Baswedan asks his students to illiteracy rate dropped to just 6%. Today name Indonesia’s most important asset, the country has no less than 165,000 it is often the nation’s natural resources elementary schools and approximately that are named. Rarely has a student 3,500 universities. named Indonesia’s human resources. This reflects how Indonesians view The proliferation of primary schools was themselves and is a mindset Dr. the result of President Suharto’s Baswedan is trying to change. leadership during the New Order regime, which focused on establishing elementary schools in every village. www.usindo.org - 1 - Baswedan, 3-16-2012 During this period, there was also a members of the Indonesian middle class massive recruitment for teachers to fill are graduates of higher education. This these schools. However, in order to demonstrates how important it is to meet the necessary recruitment targets, ensure Indonesian higher education is training was jeopardized, resulting in accessible to all. It does not only low standards for teacher quality. Thus, enlighten individuals, but facilitates although the quantity of schools has economic mobility. expanded significantly over the years and should be commended, the quality Indonesia is one of the few countries that of education remains a challenge. will have a demographic bonus in the near future. Today’s youth, if educated In order to fill the teaching gap left by and able to participate in the market, will this rapid school construction, the be a great asset to Indonesia. But if they government implemented an often do not receive education and training, it overlooked initiative in the 1950s called will become problematic. Pengerahan Tenaga Mahasiswa, or Student Mobilization Program. This Today there are 165,000 elementary program recruited university students to schools but only 43,000 junior high serve as volunteer teachers in remote schools and just over 25,000 high areas. schools. Thus it is clear that not everyone will have access to secondary They started the program with only 8 education. For example, every year 5.3 teachers but within 10 years, they were million Indonesians enter first grade but able to cover 161 districts with 1,418 only 2.2 million students will graduate volunteer teachers. The result was that from high school. Thus 3.1 million by the 1960’s, the children of your students per year drop out of school average Indonesian family could enter before reaching high school. If you university and by the 1970’s, this class calculate this over ten years, the began entering the job market. By the demographic bonus Indonesia is 1980’s, an Indonesian middle class experiencing is going to become a began to emerge. For this class, this is problem. This bottleneck must be “to whom the promise of independence addressed now. The government has been paid”. They are well educated, realizes this is an issue and is starting to protected, and have reached better socio- address it. economic conditions. Education has served as an escalator for upward Interestingly, dropout rates from mobilization over the last three decades university are relatively low, unlike because of simple interventions like this more developed countries where in education. secondary education is mandatory. Most of the dropouts will happen prior to The Indonesian middle class has grown college. For those that can gain access significantly, with some estimates to tertiary education, they often stay. placing as high as 103 million people as Indonesia must also increase access to middle class (2010 est.). Comparing higher education. While levels of this trend to the trend in growth of primary school enrollment are similar in students attending university, almost all all economic quintiles, university www.usindo.org - 2 - Baswedan, 3-16-2012 enrollments in the top 20% of the program that he called together other population are significantly higher than Rectors and asked Paramadina to present all other quintiles. the program. It is the first model in Indonesia of its kind and has been Education serves not only to educate adopted elsewhere. individuals, but to transform classes. Yet the rising cost of tuition has made it In order to recruit more low-income increasingly difficult for students from students, Paramadina also started to poor families to access higher education, evaluate the cost of education differently especially if they are academic by calculating costs per unit – such as underperformers. the total cost for one classroom – rather than per student. After some analysis, For the poor, their economic they were able to determine the optimal circumstances also predispose them to number of students per class. When underperform because of factors such as there are extra seats in a class, they lack of facilities to study, proper invite students from poor families to fill nutrition, books, etc. Thus the escalator those seats. that has for the past three decades elevated the poor into the middle class Regarding distribution of universities, cannot function as before. This is most are in Java. West Java and Jakarta creating a greater divide between the alone boast 790 universities; upper and lower classes, and the risk is metropolitan Jakarta itself has over 300 that the poor will stay poor. higher education institutions. Thus for those attending school in the outer Paramadina University implemented a islands, they must choose between going scholarship program for high scoring to a big city or to Java. There must be students from poor families. This more equitable distribution of program invited the private sector to universities across the archipelago. provide scholarships through an innovative business model that treats Greater demand leads to the donations as investments. establishment of a greater number of schools; and demand, especially for Companies donate Rp. 100 million for a private schools, is created by the middle four year education, which is paid in the class. Thus, the bigger the middle class, first year. The school will only spend the more higher education institutions Rp. 15-20 million per year, investing the will emerge. difference so that by the end of the fourth year, there is a yield of Rp. 30-40 The quantity, distribution and quality of million. After five years, the program is public education has not been the sustainable and no longer requires concern of the middle class in Indonesia. funding. Why? Because most of the middle class does not use public health and education This model has received significant services. Many in the middle class are support from the private sector. Fasli sending their children to private schools, Djalal, the former Vice Minister of which have greatly proliferated. They Education, was so impressed by this www.usindo.org - 3 - Baswedan, 3-16-2012 do not push for change because they are strategic importance of education for the not the recipients of these services. country as a whole. This is very different from the 1970’s or Q: Please expand on your role working earlier when the middle class all sent with Fulbright and other exchange their children to public health centers programs and how you see these and schools. Hence, the challenge of programs helping the education system low quality education has not received in Indonesia. enough attention. Additionally, polls show that satisfaction rates of health and A: Exchange programs create new education services in Indonesia are high perspectives of one’s native country. It but this can be misleading. Satisfaction is very important and should continue, is high not because quality is high, but not only in terms of numbers, but in because expectations are low. terms of expanding recruitment outside Java. We could perhaps change the Indonesia must tackle the challenges of focus from a pre-departure orientation to providing more equitable access to a post-program orientation for students education, and providing a better quality returning home. They need tools that education, if it is to elevate the poor into enable them to more effectively share a growing middle class. the knowledge they gained from their experience overseas. Q: The US under-invests in its education. Have any particular countries Q: Are there any strategies for teachers served as a model for your programs? going to rural areas to teach students with disabilities? A: Indonesia has not greatly invested in its education system until recently. Five A: Paramadina has adopted a new years ago, only roughly 8% of the teaching method and trained teachers to budget was allocated to education but better equip them to work with students today, investment has jumped to 20% of with disabilities. Perceptions are also the budget. This has both been a changing so that students with blessing and created problems because disabilities are encouraged to participate there was no indication in the law on in school. how to distribute funds. Not all of it reaches the Ministry of Education and Q: How is the government coordinating now it is difficult to pull back the efforts between public and religious funding. schools? On the second point, I do not think A: Coordination between the two could Indonesia uses any specific country as a be improved.