essay- THE REAL STEPS I’M GONNA TAKE TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION IN INDONESIA IF I WERE A MINISTER OF EDUCATION

THE REAL STEPS I’M GONNA TAKE TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION IN INDONESIA IF I WERE A MINISTER OF EDUCATION

Education is a pillar of a nation in preparing human resources to be able to compete competitively in the global era. Education prepares resource function in development, and it has aims to achieve a qualified and charactered person that is has a broad view of the future to achieve the expected goals and able to adapt quickly and appropriately in a variety of environments. Education affects the progress of a nation and resilience to cope with competition from other countries, especially in the era of globalization. Low awareness about education among the community / a nation will only make the nation worse off and crushed by the times, and less able to meet the demands of the world. The factors that cause low levels of education including public awareness, cost, education, location, faculty, etc.

In Indonesia there are many children who do not get a decent education, illiteracy rates remain high, and in practice the cost of education is high. The high cost of education is making people feel the middle to lower it difficult to pay for his children's education, if they continue to find it difficult and often forced out of school is a last resort for children. If it is left unchecked and there is no solution to the problem hit, then Indonesia would not be aligned with other nations when compared to the quality and image of Indonesia in the eyes of the world is deteriorating.

If I were a minister of education, the first and foremost thing I would do is to eradicate corruption among education providers (ministries of education as well as the representatives (House of Representatives) which handles education and subordinates. That thing became my priority since the beginning of the corruption comes officials, they feel have the opportunity for corruption. Temptation for corruption starts from the large education budget that is allocated. According to the Constitution of 1945 Article 31 paragraph 4 stated that the State budget prioritizes education to at least 20% of the State budget revenue expenditure and from the revenue budget expenditures to meet the needs of national education. Thus, it is clear that the budget for it not to get in the pockets of the officials (corruption), but to meet the needs of organization of national education.

If there is no corruption of the education, the education in Indonesia will be highly optimized. In the absence of corruption would affect the fulfillment of educational infrastructure. If educational facilities met / fulfilled, then education will work effectively and find comfort in the learning process so that the quality of education increases. The absence of corruption can also provide wider opportunity for everyone to attend, especially for disadvantaged groups to develop their talents and interests in school so they do not lose hope in achieving its goals. In the absence of corruption makes the education budget is well maintained and well targeted (for the education of all members of society) and can also be used to subsidize the education of children disadvantaged groups in order to stay in school as well as an opportunity for them to be able to realize their hopes and make education as stock in his life.

                The step I would like to do if I were a minister of education is reduce the cost of education in order not expensive and affordable for everyone. Because of the issue that is widely talked today is about the high cost of education. The case which is happening right now is the high price to be paid for the cost of education from kindergarten to university. It makes poor people have less opportunity to receive education. However, the government actually has been providing scholarships for underprivileged students, but still not suitable to the standard of living in Indonesia today. Scholarships are given by government spread unevenly distributed and not entirely on the people who really need. The requirements may be said not too complicated one is attached Certificate of Disability from local government. So that, the students who signed up for a scholarship can easily get it. Unfortunately today many phenomenon of identity fraud, actually students in the capable level change the status into unable level because most of them are reluctant to spend big money to the cost of education. At school there is also a school committee, but the people who become administrators and school committee members are people who are close to the principal. As a result, the school committee only be legitimator principal policy and decision that is made often dispassioned the student’s parents.

            I will also open up greater opportunities and provide a fair education for all people. There are still many people who think that education is only going to cost, energy, and thought. Therefore, they do not recommend their children to attend school up to the highest level. They think that schooling to elementary school is enough. Their understanding is if he's a guy that will continue the work of his father, and if she is a woman so she would stay in the house and the kitchen is where she works (cooking for the family). If everyone could take a higher education surely they can feel the inner satisfaction of its own and have a job. And that fair education fair is also a factor that can eliminate discrimination against others, such as discrimination of race, religion, culture, etc. Specially for minorities. With justice in education then everyone will feel good in their education without being disturbed by the discriminative actions of others. If everyone could be accommodated, and they can develop their talents and interests through that fair education , fulfillment of experts from the nation itself was not a dream. It will make Indonesia more respected in the international community that Indonesia is a great country, capable of struggling to catch up, and become a nation that can compete in this global era.

            If I were the education minister I would like to improve physical facilities. Due to the infrastructure, for example many schools and colleges are damaged. In other hand, there are schools that use less of learning media, the books in library are not complete, there are no standard laboratory to practice, inadequate use of information technology, and so on. Beside that, there are astonishing fact that many schools don’t have their own building, has no library, no laboratory, etc. due to the reasons above I’d like to improve physical facilities, so that students and teachers can find comfortness in the teaching and learning activity. Teaching and learning activities becomes optimal, learning materials that is given by teacher can be conveyed with good, students can receive the material and master it well.

Then it’s about the teachers’ quality. I will try to improve teacher quality because it’s the main factor of success or failure of an education. But nowadays the situation of teachers in Indonesia is very apprehensive. Most of them have no sufficient professionalism to carry out their duties to learning plan, implement learning, assessing learning outcomes, coaching, training, research and give service to public. The quantity of teachers in Indonesia is quite adequate, but the qualified teachers are generally still low. They also less able to have optimal play as their function, because the government is still less attention to take efforts in increasing teachers’ professionalism. In quantitative terms, the actual number of teachers in Indonesia isn’t too bad. Nevertheless, the distribution of teachers was a lot of weakness that on one side there’s an excess number of school teachers, and on the other hand there’s a shortage school teachers. In many cases, there are numbers of primary school teachers is only three to four people, so they have to teach class in parallel and simultaneously.

When measured from the academic requirements, involving minimal education and compliance areas of study with lessons that should be given to the students, there are many teachers who do not meet the teaching quality (under quality). It can be proved by there are many teachers who don’t graduate, but taught in high school/ vocational school, and many teachers are not teaching according to their disciplines. More than 50% of teachers in primary school, secondary school / vocational school in Indonesia are not fulfilling eligibility to teach. With the condition and circumstances, it’s expected that ongoing education in school should be equal to the life of  children and should instill manners to their students. Teaching is the central point of education and qualification as a mirror quality teachers contributed very big on education quality which they are responsible.

If I were an education minister, I would like to improve teachers’ welfare. Teachers welfare have role in making education quality. With low income, obviously many teachers had to do second job. For example, they do a tutorial in the afternoon, booksellers, pulses traders phone, be a merchant in the market, and so on. Actually, there is a laws, it mentioned that teacher and lecturers will receive an appropriate and adequate income, including basic salary, allowances attached to the salary, special allowances and other income related to the job. However, the gap of private and public welfare of teachers is another problem that arises. If I were an education minister i should be more responsible for that thing.

            We know that Indonesian students’ achievement still low if compared with Indonesia’s neighbor countries, such as Malaysia and Singapore. Due to that reason, if I were minister of education I wanna improve students’ achievement. The low of students’ achievements is caused of the lack of physical facilities, teachers’ quality, and also teachers’ welfare. Beside that, Indonesian children was only can control 30% material, that’s why they are very difficult to answer the question when they had exams. If there is the lack of students’ achievement how can Indonesia be a great country in this global era? Because in this era we need to be smart in everything in order to not tricked by the other country, for example in the commerce.

The lack of students’ achievement is also related to the curriculum we apply right now. I think that superior country had intervention our country, that’s why our government just agreed with it. But they don’t rethinking about Indonesian students’ capability to receive the lesson through its curriculum. If I were the minister of education, I would like to change the curriculum which is suitable to be applied for Indonesian students. Because Indonesia has its own way how to study better, we don’t need curriculum which derived from the superior country. Superior country just wanted to take advantages from growing country (Indonesia). The curriculum which is derived from superior country doesn’t guarantee us that it will be succeed and will improve students’ achievements in education. We need curriculum which is functional and can improve students’ skills to enter the world of work.

            If I were an education minister I will also improve relevance education needs. Actually, how to get a job is by study, and studying is to create and improve the talents that we have inside us. Here’s relevance education needs still low, it can be seen from the number of unemployed graduates. Students who are out of school and don’t have life skills increase. There is inconsistency between educational outcomes and the need of the world of work is due to a curriculum that is materially less functional the required skills as students enter the workforce.

            On the other hand, number of the laziness of the students still high. We need to change education atmosphere to be fun. Students are just not sitting on their chair in class, they will be active in teaching and learning activity. And students need condition that they are not feeling forced by anything when they study at school. If students active and don’t get force, they will enjoy the school and they can receive lessons easily. So that, they wouldn’t feel sleepy at class cause of boring situation which make them feel lazy to do anything. Therefore, if I were a minister of education I’d like to decrease the number of lazy students.

            The aims of education would become true if all of the participants have honesty. Nowadays we often found that when the national exams coming, a lot of students are cheating. Not just the students, but also the teachers. Some of cases, teacher gave the answer to their students, so that their students can get high score to be graduated. Actually, they know that cheating is not good, but they are forced by something to get good mark. Cheating is just beneficial for a while not for the lifetime. If many students do cheat, they just will be a person that is depending on the other person. They can’t do their own work by them self. If they enter the real life, they will not able to done the work better. Overall, if I were an education minister I would like to improve the honest in all of the education participants.

            Shortly, if I were a minister of education I would like to give two solutions. They are systemic solution and technical solution.

Systemic solution is done by changing the social system related to education system. As we all know that education system is closely linked to the economic system which is applied. I will maximize the role and responsibilities for the education.

Technical solution is done by solve the issue about teachers’ quality, teacher’s welfare, and  student’s achievement.