Redefining the Success of Education: Where Indonesia Has Excelled and Where It Has Not

https://doi.org/10.22146/jh.36532

Henry Wijaya(1*)

(1) Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


How do we define the state of Indonesia’s national education? On one hand, Indonesian students have always performed lamentably in international standardized tests. In the latest 2015 PISA test, their performance in Science, Mathematics, and Reading was among the lowest, with the average ranking of 62 out of the 70 participating countries (OECD, 2016). On the other hand, Indonesia’s enrollment rates for primary education have always been higher than 97% for the past decade (Statistics Indonesia, 2018), with the Gross Enrollment Ratio even reaching 103.45% in 2016 (World Bank, 2016). With such polarizing results, it is not easy to give a clear-cut answer to above question. However, in retrospect, should the success of Indonesia’s education be measured merely by numbers, in isolation from how it could socioculturally and politically impacted its citizens? Multiple societal tensions, as well as the looming 2019 election, should actually inform us how education should and could play a larger role in countering currently growing conservatism. This paper will first lay out multiple facets of Indonesia’s national education—examining whether one area has fared better than the others—before making a case for the other role that Indonesia’s education policy has not yet pondered, let alone incorporated. Ultimately, this paper expects to contribute to the wider discussion of the overarching question: how the success of national education should be (re-)defined.


Keywords


comparative education; education policy; peace education

Full Text:

PDF


References

Aji, M. R. (2018, May 14). Police: Sidoarjo bomb explodes accidentally. Tempo. Retrieved from https://en.tempo.co/read/news/2018/05/14/055918403/Police-Sidoarjo-Bomb-Explodes-Accidentally

Arifianto, A. R. (2017, April 20). Jakarta governor election results in victory for prejudice over pluralism. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/jakarta-governor-election-results-in-a-victory-for-prejudice-over-pluralism-76388?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=facebookbutton

Bajaj, M., & Chiu, B. (2009). Education for sustainable development as peace education. Peace & Change, 34(4), 441–455. Retrieved from http://ssrn.com/abstract=2143437

Boediwardhana, W. (2018, May 14). Breaking: Another bomb attack hits Surabaya police HQ. The Jakarta Post. Retrieved from http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/05/14/breaking-another-bomb-attack-hits-surabaya-police-hq.html

Diani, H. (2018, April 25). Religious conservatism at public schools and universities leads to alarming intolerance. Magdalene. Retrieved from https://magdalene.co/news-1725-religious-conservatism-at-public-schools-and-universities-lead-to-alarming-intolerance-.html

Faridz, D., McKirdy, E., & Mackintosh, E. (2018, May 15). Three families were behind the ISIS-inspired bombings in Indonesia's Surabaya, police said. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/13/asia/indonesia-attacks-surabaya-intl/index.html

Galtung, J. (1964). An editorial. Journal of Peace Research, 1(1), 1–4. http://doi.org/10.1177/002234336400100101

Galtung, J. (1990). Cultural violence. Journal of Peace Research, 27(3), 291–305. http://doi.org/10.1177/0022343390027003005

Grewal, B. S. (2003). Johan Galtung: Positive and Negative Peace, 1–7. Retrieved from http://www.activeforpeace.org/no/fred/positive_negative_peace.pdf

Harris, I. (2008). History of peace education. In M. Bajaj, Encyclopedia of peace education (pp. 1–6). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Harris, I., & Morrison, M. L. (2003). What is peace education? In Peace education (pp. 9–36). NC: McFarland & Co.

IEA. (2018a). About us. Retrieved from http://www.iea.nl/about-us

IEA. (2018b). TIMSS. Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. Retrieved from http://www.iea.nl/timss

Indonesia Investments. (n.d.). Religion in Indonesia. Retrieved from https://www.indonesia-investments.com/culture/religion/item69

Jalal, F., Samani, M., Chang, M. C., Stevenson, R., Ragatz, A. B., & Negara, S. D. (2009). Teacher certification in Indonesia: A strategy for teacher quality improvement. (Report No. 48578). Retrieved from http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2009/04/10582109/teacher-certification-indonesia-strategy-teacher-quality-improvement

Jones, S. (2016, November 1). Why Indonesian extremists are gaining ground? The Interpreter. Retrieved from https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/why-indonesian-extremists-are-gaining-ground

McKirdy, E. (2018, May 16). 1 dead, 3 injured in sword attack on Indonesian police headquarters. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/16/asia/indonesia-samurai-sword-terror-suspects-killed-intl/index.html

Mullis, I. V. S., Martin, M. O., Foy, P., & Hooper, M. (2016). TIMSS 2015 International Results in Mathematics. Retrieved from Boston College, TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center website: http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/timss2015/international-results/

UIS. (2018a). Gross enrollment ratio. Retrieved from http://uis.unesco.org/en/glossary-term/gross-enrolment-ratio

UIS. (2018b). Net enrollment rate. Retrieved from http://uis.unesco.org/node/334718

OECD. (2016). PISA 2015 results (volume 1): Excellence and equity in education. Paris: OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264266490-en

OECD. (2018). About OECD. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/about/

Pepinsky, T. (2017, June 1). Indonesian politics has been rocked by two big developments. Now what’s next? The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/06/01/indonesian-voters-disrupted-their-political-scene-whats-next-for-the-country/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d84438368e79

Pisani, E. (2013, December 5). Indonesian kids don’t know how stupid they are. Portrait Indonesia. Retrieved from http://portraitindonesia.com/indonesian-kids-dont-know-how-stupid-they-are/

Pisani, E. (2013, December 7). A nation of dunces. Inside Indonesia. Retrieved from http://www.insideindonesia.org/a-nation-of-dunces

Pisani, E. (2014). Indonesia etc.: Exploring the improbable nation. London: Granta Books.

Pisani, E. (2016, December 8). Apparently, 42% of young Indonesians are good for nothing. Indonesia Etc. Retrieved from http://indonesiaetc.com/apparently-42-of-young-indonesians-are-good-for-nothing/

Reardon, B. (1988). Comprehensive peace education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Rogers, B. (2017, May 29). Stop calling Indonesia a role model: It’s stopped being one. The Diplomat. Retrieved from https://thediplomat.com/2017/05/stop-calling-indonesia-a-role-model-its-stopped-being-one/

Setara Institute. (2016, May 24). Laporan survei: Toleransi siswa SMA negeri di Jakarta & Bandung Raya. Retrieved from https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByXa8DJoawcgWGJXTkpISEtPNmM/view

Sholih, M. (2018, May 9). Kericuhan berdarah berjam-jam di Mako Brimob. Tirto. Retrieved from https://tirto.id/kericuhan-berdarah-berjam-jam-di-mako-brimob-cJ9s

Simons, G. F., & Fennig, C. D. (Eds.). (2018). Indonesia. In Ethnologue: Languages of the World, (21st ed.) [Online version]. Dallas, TX: SIL International. Retrieved from https://www.ethnologue.com/country/ID

Soeriaatmadja, W. (2018, May 16). 4 men attack Riau provincial police headquarters using swords, killing one police officer. The Straits Times. Retrieved from https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/at-least-two-police-officers-hurt-in-attack-on-riau-provincial-police-headquarters

Supriatma, M. (2017, April 23). Setelah kemenangan: Saran untuk kaum ‘pribumi’. Indoprogress. Retrieved from https://indoprogress.com/2017/04/setelah-kemenangan-saran-untuk-kaum-pribumi-2/

Wijaya, C. A., & Yosephine, L. (2016, October 14). Thousands of hardliners march against Ahok. The Jakarta Post. Retrieved from http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/10/14/thousands-hard-liners-march-against-ahok.html

World Bank. (2018a). Education [Data file]. Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/topic/education?locations=ID

World Bank. (2018b). How can gross enrollment ratios be over 100 percent? In World Development Indicators (WDI). Retrieved from https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/114955-how-can-gross-school-enrollment-ratios-be-over-100

World Population Review. (2018). Indonesia Population 2018. Retrieved from http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/indonesia-population/



DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/jh.36532

Article Metrics

Abstract views : 4917 | views : 3084

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.




Copyright (c) 2019 Humaniora

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.