Dina Indrasafitri, Jakarta – As the country celebrated National Education Day, which falls every May 2, critics are lamenting what they call an "authoritarian standardization" of education, which they say has brought students more harm than good.
Bambang Wisudo from Sekolah Tanpa Batas (Borderless Schools) supporting "alternative education" methods, blasted the country's education system as being "authoritarian". "Teachers tend to cram student's with knowledge. but the students ended up learning little," he said.
He argued that the national standardization of education should not be implemented in Indonesia, which is culturally, geographically and economically diverse. Children are not "commodities," he added.
Bambang criticized the much-decried national exams. "Schools are now like testing factories. the test regime should end and teachers should determine the material, methods and evaluation of the learning process."
Several parties have opposed the national exams mainly because it is said to have caused students severe stress. In Jambi, for example, a student allegedly committed suicide after failing the mathematics subject.
In 2006, a group of teachers filed a lawsuit to the Central Jakarta District Court demanding the abolition of the national exams. The court granted the request and the government appealed the verdict. Last year, the Supreme Court rejected the government's appeal, saying that the examinations could be held this year only if its implementation was improved.
"It's amazing that the government carried out the national exams (despite the verdict)," Bambang said.
The government said it needed to conduct a national examination to measure and improve the overall quality of education in the country. Organizations indicate Indonesia has a long way to go to achieve educational quality.
A 2010 UNESCO report revealed that Indonesia in 2007 was ranked at 65 of 128 countries in terms of its Education Development Index, which stood at 0.947, putting the country into the "medium" category along with Malaysia and the Philippines.
The Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education in 2008 termed Indonesia as a "C minus" and ranked the country 21st from 44 countries in the Asia Pacific region.
Eny Setyaningsih, the national coordinator for the E-Net for Justice Indonesia, said that the 2007 research carried out by the National Education Ministry revealed that more than 44 percent of its respondents did not complete the basic nine-year long education system.
"Most informants said that children's teachers were often absent, and the learning methods tend not to be dialogic," she said during a talk show held last week in Jakarta.
Eny added that the students' parents were rarely involved in determining schools' programs. "The community does not have sufficient knowledge on the standards required to ensure quality education."