Indonesian Education System : Learn Much but Knew Little.........

     We  aware that there are many problems with Indonesian society today. Corruption, weak law enforcement, low morality particularly in the government and legislative levels, poverty, bad education, etc. I would like to focus on the problem of Indonesian educational system.
It is obvious that Indonesian educational system is a messy stuff. Each minister of education has a different policy, often contradicting one another. Education is becoming more expensive and inefficient.
      If we see the situation today, Indonesia seems to follow the Singaporean system. The system focuses on the improvement of the cognitive aspect of the human brain. Its aim is to provide a generation of hard worker, which focuses less on creativity and developing open minds, but more on productivity. It’s like creating robots.
Intelligence, actually, has many types. Gardner [1] divides intelligence into eight types, i.e
logical
linguistic
spatial
musical
kinesthetic
naturalist
intrapersonal
interpersonal
Thus, the Indonesian system (like in many less developed Asian countries) only deals with improving logical intelligence. Singapore applied this system simply because Lee Kuan Yew wants to fully control the Singapore people. Remember, he is a good friend of Suharto. To preserve their power, these kinds of leaders never prefer many creative persons.
On the other hand, the education system in many western countries such as in the US, Australia, and the European Union provides the students the opportunities to improve many types of their intelligence. The students are encouraged to be creative, free-thinking, more tolerant, and open-minded persons. This system allows many advances in both technology and society in many developed countries not just the western countries but also in Japan, China, and Korea although in these countries academic feudalism may still be seen.
In addition, the Indonesian educational system is lacking in morality education. Creating a generation with a high morality and social responsibility is not just by teaching and memorizing in the schools. Good marks in Pelajaran Agama (Religious Studies) is useless without good morality education either in the family or school. Most Indonesians are still focused on the outer beauty, not the inner one.
However, it is difficult for Indonesian to improve its educational system, because:
Feudalism. Most Indonesian are still practise feudalism, including in the academic world. Guru or dosen (teachers and lecturers) are always right, the pupils just follow.
Most Indonesians appreciate only a logical/cognitive type of capability. Do not expect a high income if you are just an artist, naturalist, linguist. Parents compete against each other for having high IQ children (for self esteem), “torturing” them by sending to many extra courses.
Indonesian have been indoctrinated during Suharto’s era (maybe still today) to follow “budaya nasional” (national culture), which is more about “kekeluargaan” (family) and “gotong royong” (mutual cooperation) but less about personal creativity, democracy, open mindedness, and freedom of thinking. It does not mean that Indonesian culture is all bad but this particular culture will lead Indo to nowhere. The reason is the kekeluargaan and gotong royong culture only good to a certain extent, it is easily corruptible just like we see today. The bad leaders usually use this for their own benefits.
Indonesians are fooled by the slogan Guru = Pahlawan Tanpa Tanda Jasa (Teachers = Heroes Without Medals). It is a good motto but fully corrupted. Never expect to have a good education and research unless the teachers/lecturers are well paid.
Other reasons which you may be able to contribute.

Hence, to improve the Indonesian educational system, we have to eliminate the hurdles mentioned above. Since most Indonesians are still less educated, it still depends on the country leadership.
Dengan kata lain, dengan kurikulum yang sangat banyak, sistem pendidikan Indonesia menghasilkan out put yang tahu banyak tapi sedikit saja yang bisa diamalkan. 

(wrote by : Ruslin Tendri)