Pursuing education, everyone?

Rektoran UGM

 Around a decade ago, there was a quite interesting topic to discuss in the English book I used to teach in my workplace: a middle-aged woman pursuing her education in college. Her background was: she was married and a full housewife.

One memorable remark from a student came from a male student, a single one, and he was around thirty years old at that time. He was an employee. He said, “What is the point of this woman to pursue her study if after that she just would stay home and continue being a housewife? I am of opinion that she just wastes her time, energy, as well as her husband’s money. The case would be different—and more understandable—if she were an employee.”

The main topic was about education, especially about different kinds of learners: someone is either a visual learner, an audio learner, or a kinesthetic learner; or the combination of those three kinds of learners. Since I was not a feminist yet, LOL, I never led the discussion to gender problem.

Apparently that male student of mine didn’t comprehend Abraham Maslow’s idea about pursuing self-actualization need. If he already knew about that, perhaps he never thought that to fulfill this high-order need for women could be in a form of pursuing education to college—a somewhat masculine thing. Maybe he thought that women only wanted to do the so-called feminine things, such as cooking, sewing, and gardening.
You can guess that he would not let his wife pursue high education if she happened to be ‘only’ a housewife.

***

In the college where I teach, I oftentimes find female students who are more than thirty years old. All of them are employees. People can easily draw a conclusion that they all pursue their education with one sole goal: to enhance their position in their workplace. Higher position mostly means higher salary.

I know some of them are quite good. Some others really have to work hard to follow the material. A few really enjoy the study. Most others find it difficult. Even some of them think it unimportant to attend the classes. They appear only once or twice in one semester. This of course makes me unhappy; moreover if they are not good.

A few weeks ago, one female student of mine pleaded, “Ms. Nana, you know my English is very limited. And I am not young anymore. That’s why it is very difficult for me to grasp the knowledge you share. But you know I am never absent in your classes. If I cannot do the test well, will you give me some adding point from my diligence?”
I really did not have a heart to say, “That is none of my business.” LOL. Even, this academic year, for the first time I let the students open the book during mid-test, because of this ‘special student’. Her classmates are supposed to thank her.

Still, I am unhappy. And I am still expecting one day I will have students—both male and female—who pursue their study in their ‘not young’ age because of their craving in knowledge, just like Knute Axelbrod, one imaginary character in Sinclair Lewis’ short story.

PT56 22.40 160509

Legal Bribery in Education?

This year, for the first time, the municipal government of Semarang issued a regulation for education, especially related to the new students acceptance. Besides via the “regular” program, state schools were encouraged to open a “special” program. This program gave a way to students who didn’t get good scores in the examination to be accepted at their dream school, as long as the parents agreed to pay some amount of money. Of course this “policy” got lots of criticisms from society.
I remember in 1980 when I was accepted at one state junior high school, in the announcement board, I saw around 200 test-takers were accepted. They were divided into four classes. However, on the first day of studying in that school, there were eight classes! This meant there were around 200 other students also accepted, not via “regular” program—passing the entrance test (not via high scores of the national examination). Some elementary school friends of mine who did not pass the test also went to the same junior high school together with me. You can guess what their parents did: bribed the school. Therefore, I heard after that the headmaster bought a new car. The rumour said the money the school got from the bribery was divided among the teachers evenly, and the headmaster got the most.
I did not pay attention when I entered the senior high school. I believe bribery cases also happened, only they were done more ‘tidily’ so that they were not easily seen.
In 2003 Angie entered the same junior high school as mine. In the announcement board there were 280 new students accepted, for seven classes. On the first day of school, I asked Angie to find out how many classes were open, and how many students there were in one class. She reported there were (still) seven classes. However, in one class, there were around forty-five until forty-seven students. It means, there were around five until seven “smugglers”. Similar as what happened in my ‘era’ to be accepted at that junior high school, of course the money obtained from the bribery was exclusively for the school only—whether to be given to the headmaster as well as the teachers, or to build some laboratories or to provide some facilities.
It has been a public secret that during the new student acceptance and registration, headmasters and teachers get some extra money.
What happened after the municipal government of Semarang issued a regulation for the “special” program, so that the parents can do “legal” bribery? The money must be divided into two parts evenly, for the schools as well as for the government. What will the government do with the money? The mayor of Semarang must be very careful to carry out something using the money because the society has given full attention to this case. Several months ago, he was accused of getting involved in one corruption case.
The middle-low social class people have been very concerned with this because education has become more and more expensive recently. They have to compete with the rich people. The bitter joke of “orang miskin dilarang sakit” (poor people are forbidden to be sick) will be accompanied by another joke, “orang miskin dilarang sekolah” (poor people are forbidden to go to school) while in fact education is one most important basic to develop our country, to catch up with other advanced countries. How will Indonesia develop itself if the young generations cannot get enough education due to the expensive cost?
PT56 21.50 270708

Educational System in Indonesia

 

Monday afternoon December 24, 2007, I attended a class having a presentation time. There were five students to present their papers. However, I was attracted only to two of them. One student talked about “After graduating from senior high school, what’s next?” and the other one talked about “Deterioration of the educational system in Indonesia”. Both of them are high school students.

The first student. He mentioned three possibilities of what a person usually does:

1. Continuing their studies to a higher level education
2. Postponing their studies
3. Working

Related to the second possibility, the presenter gave two reasons: There are two reasons for this: the first shocking reason (for me of course) is because someone wants to enjoy his/her life. I was wondering to find out that there were a group of people that want to “enjoy their life” after graduating from senior high school. They don’t want to directly continue studying perhaps because they are tired to study. They don’t want to face any responsibility they have to bear as students: studying, making assignments, doing examination, etc. They don’t want to work either because they are not ready yet to be responsible with their own life. Both studying and working need big responsibilities.

Life means responsibility. When we dare to live, we’ve got to dare the risk.

The second reason (very logical for me) is to save some money before continuing their study since they don’t have enough fund. Some unfortunate people cannot continue their study at once because their parents cannot afford the tuition.

For the third possibility, some people choose to work because perhaps they want to collect some money to continue their study, referring to the second possibility with the second reason. Some other people perhaps think that the diploma they get from senior high school is enough already for them to get a job with enough income for their life. Or sometimes the fact that people graduating from a higher level education do not get appropriate job so that they have to do jobs done by senior high school graduates probably makes people lazy to continue their study to college.

When I asked the presenter whether he did a research by distributing a questionnaire to find out how many percents senior high school graduates do the first, second, and third possibilities, I got a disappointing answer: he did not make that research. When I asked him the second possibility for the first reason—to enjoy life--, he mentioned his brothers and cousins did that. “They have money to directly continue their life, I assume. However, they choose to stay home and do their hobbies: such as being racer (an amateur one).”

“Will you do that later after graduating?” another teacher asked him.

“Maybe Ma’am,” was his disappointing answer. 

“Deterioration of the educational system in Indonesia” the second presenter meant was referring to the idea of the government to include six subjects in the national examination for senior high school students. For several years (I am sorry I don’t pay attention for how many years exactly), the third grade senior high school students had only three subjects tested in the national examination: English, Bahasa Indonesia, and Mathematics. They did the examination for three days. It meant they prepared only one subject for one day. While the new policy—six subjects to be tested—will comprise three days too. It means students have to prepare two subjects in one day. The presenter conveyed his doubt whether students would really have enough time to prepare it. When they don’t have enough time, it is doubted that they will not prepare it well. They will just ‘memorize’ the material to be tested without comprehending it thoroughly. Indonesia’s next generation’s quality will be decreasing.

To comment this topic, I remembered the time when I was at high school, more than twenty years ago. Majoring in “Language”, I got five subjects to be tested in the national examination while my fellow students majoring in “Science” got also six or even seven subjects to be tested. We did that also in three/four days. Minimal score to pass one subject was 6 and WE DID NOT COMPLAIN for that.

The presenter got surprised to hear this and said, “Well, Ma’am, I believe at that time you didn’t get lots entertainment so that you could concentrate well. My generation gets lotsa tempting entertainment so that it is difficult for us to concentrate only on our study.”

“I am sorry to say but you HAVE TO set your first priority for your own future!” was my response.

Talking about the educational system in Indonesia that obliges students ONLY to memorize, and not really comprehend, it has been going on for several generations. I will take one example I experienced. When studying English grammar, I learned and memorized twelve kinds of tenses, from Simple Present Tense until Past Perfect Continuous Tense. I memorized the pattern very well, I could answer questions on tenses flawlessly when those tenses were given separately. However, when I needed to use it in the daily life, mixing many kinds of tenses at once, I did not really know which was which. Memorizing the theory was done perfectly. However, applying the theory in the real life meant something else.

Referring to what Bob Sadino said about the educational system in Indonesia, (in one seminar in one city in Indonesia), he said about the human resources in Indonesia who are smart, memorizing theories perfectly, unfortunately they do not get time to apply the theories. It means those brilliant human resources are not really ready to be used at workplaces. Worse, even the teachers also do not know how to apply the theories because what they master is only the theories but not the application. When the teachers do not know, how will they teach the students?

The deterioration of the educational system in Indonesia is not simply the policy of the government to give high school students more burden in the national examination. It is more thorough and complicated.

My comment for the two presenters: they needed to prepare the papers to be presented more seriously. Their topics were interesting enough but they did not make the papers well. This is also a sign showing that there is deterioration in the quality of the graduates in the English Course where I work. (FYI, since 2003 we have used new books with more up to date topics discussed.)

BWT 10.15 261207

Poverty and Education

 

There is a quite interesting true story in the local tabloid today. It is about a girl who is now working as a migrant worker—a housemaid—in one neighboring country of Indonesia.

She was born in a very poor family. When she was born, her poor parents had to give her to one relative, a widow, because they did not have enough money to raise her. They focused more on her older siblings. However, as poor as her own parents, the widow could not support her education well. She stopped supporting the writer’s education after she graduated from elementary school. Luckily, her first sibling who already worked at that time was willing to support her education until she graduated from senior high school.

After graduating from senior high school, she lived together with this first sibling and helped doing household chores, taking care of her niece and nephew. Unfortunately, the first sibling in fact treated her as unpaid maid. Perhaps it was as a way to pay back for the fund for her education?

Feeling worried about her future, the writer who was smart enough, joined one PJTKI, one institution in Indonesia whose business is to send workers abroad. She worked in Malaysia for four years. Her experience, luckily, belongs to the lucky migrant workers who can get much money. Her plan actually was to get enough money to continue her study to college. However then she changed her mind after going home. When she saw that her adopted mother lived in an almost broken house, she decided to use her money to help build a decent house for the widow who raised her. This caused jealousy in her own parents. Besides, the first sibling asked her to pay back all the money she used to study in junior and senior high school. Her other relatives also came to her to ask for her help in finance.

Her disappointment because she could not make her dream come true—to continue to study in college—made her go abroad again. This time she worked in Hong Kong as a housemaid too. She was “lucky” too because she got good employers. Her problem was still the same—her relatives who kept asking her to send them most of her paycheck.

However, this time she was determined to continue her study. She started to be strict to her relatives. She told them that she wanted to use her money for her future investment—education. She wanted to study in Hong Kong while she was still there. Of course her relatives were very disappointed to hear that. They said that she had better think of getting married, being a good wife, and taking care of children now that she was almost thirty years old. However, she stayed put.

If you have any suggestion for her, you can send email to her email address at
si_genduk_sri@yahoo.com

****

Reading the above true story reminded me of one student of mine. He came from quite a big family too. His parents have seven children. The way his parents raised the children is: the parents supported the first child’s education. After that, the first child would be responsible for the second child’s education; the second child for the third child’s education and so on.

I don’t remember the age gap among those seven children. Since everybody got the same responsibility, no one felt jealous why they had to spare their paycheck with their younger siblings for their education.

****

Another story again is my own good friend. She comes from less wealthy parents who have seven children. She was the only one who continued the study to college while the others were just senior high school graduates. She told me that she already worked since she was in college, to support her own education, and also to help her parents’ finance.

Several years ago, she told me that she was sometimes tired; she worked hard but she never enjoyed her own paycheck. When she gave little money to the parents, her siblings complained. She didn’t think of marriage because she was worried not able to give some money to her parents that eventually would make her siblings complain.

She got married though at last, in January 2005. I don’t know anymore how she managed her money—for her own need and for her parents.

****

Another story is a family of five children in my neighborhood. Different from the previous stories, the parents didn’t think that education was important. Due to poverty, they could not send their children to school. The first daughter stopped her education after graduating from junior high school. Then the parents married her off.

Having four children left to raise probably was not as hard as before. But still they could not give enough nutritious food and education facilities to the four children.

Three years ago, the second and the fourth children got accident. They were killed due to that. From their deaths, the parents got enough insurance money from Jasa Raharja insurance company. However, instead of using the money wisely to send the two children to school, the parents used the money to support their daily needs because the father’s wage is low. The woman didn’t work.

PT56 14.40 190707

International Standardized School

The hubbub of applying for a new school (for elementary school graduates to junior high school, and junior high school graduates to senior high school), especially to state schools (because the fee is cheaper than private schools) was over two days ago with the announcement of who was accepted.
I am interested in SMA 3 Semarang, Angie’s school.
Last year the policy of “rayonisasi” was applied to all state schools. (Can I translate it into ‘regionalization’?) LOL The statistics was like this:
A state school had to accept
 60% for students who dwell in the same regions with the school
 30% for students who dwell out of the regions but still inside the town
 10% for students who come from out of town.
The impact of that “policy” was that last year SMA 3 Semarang “suffered” from being forced to accept students with low standard of NEM (the original score of examination) because they had to fulfill the quota of that 60%. Meanwhile, the competition was very high for students who dwell out of the regions and come from out of town. The result was the various capability of students accepted. SMA 3 Semarang got many very smart students (proven with their high score of examination), but at the same time, it also got many less intellectual students.
(FYI, SMA 3 Semarang is located in the middle of housing complexes. Due to the development of Semarang, nowadays more citizens live in the suburb area rather than in the downtown. Seemingly, students who live in the downtown are not that smart. LOL.)
This became a big problem and also a big issue for the government, besides for the school itself, because starting last year SMA 3 Semarang was chosen to be the pilot project of SNBI (national school but following international standard). SMA 3 Semarang was chosen to be the pilot project in Semarang because of the quality of students. How could the pilot project become successful if the input was not as good as expected?
During last year (July 2006-June 2007), I went to SMA 3 Semarang several times to attend school-parents meeting. The headmaster and also some teachers kept complaining about the input. The teachers complained a bit different though. They have been “spoilt” only getting smart students (due to the high competition to be accepted at SMA 3) and last year they had to teach less intellectual students. I got a bit bored anytime I heard this complaint. If related to the success of the government’s pilot project to have a national school but following international standard, the complaint still sounded okay to me. Smart students were one important element to succeed the program. However, when it came to the teachers’ complaint about having to deal with less intellectual students, it showed that they didn’t have deep empathy to their fellow teachers who happened to teach in some other less favorite state schools, located in the suburb.
Learning from this experience, the government approved the expectation of SMA 3 Semarang: SMA 3 is not included into the program of “rayonisasi”. All students can apply for SMA 3 Semarang to compete together without any “special treatment” to some students who live in the same region with it. The result? Of course the competition is very high. This year, just like many previous years (except last year), SMA 3 Semarang only accepted smart students (or well, lucky students who got high score for their examination. LOL. Some people say “lucky people can BEAT smart people.)
Looking at the news in the yesterday local newspaper, I talked to Angie, “If you graduated from junior high school this year, you wouldn’t be accepted at SMA 3 Semarang suppose you got the same score: Math 8.2, English 9, Bahasa Indonesia 9.” She just smiled bitterly. She doesn’t belong to the hardworking student category although her I.Q is quite high, 122.
I remember the time when I was at school (elementary, junior, and senior), score 8 was already good, score 9, very good, 10 excellent. It was almost impossible for a student to get 10 in his/her report. I suppose I worked harder than Angie does now. I am wondering if the students now are much smarter than the students of my era? Because they belong to the globalization era generations?
I remember one question that I considered absurd from my student a week ago. He asked me whether there was student who didn’t graduate when he/she reached the third grade. The background of the question was his mother’s statement, “It was easy to graduate in my era. We didn’t need to study hard. The most important thing was to behave well at school.” Again, the background of this question was the protests of students nowadays with the minimum standard of a score to graduate. This policy has made many smart students become victims. For example: for the three main subjects, Mathematics, English, and Bahasa Indonesia, a student must at least get score 4 to graduate, and the average is 5. A student failed when he/she got score less than 3 in one of those three subjects.
I don’t remember if there was such policy when I was at school. However, when saying that it was easy for a student to graduate as long as he/she behaved well at school, I don’t agree with that. I saw some students not graduate from the third grade in my time (both in junior and senior high school). It did not always happen to some “naughty” or problematic students. No.
Going back to the main topic. Next week Angie will go back to school. She will be in the eleventh grade. It means that she will enjoy looking at her junior who usually are still shy coming to a new school. I asked her to prepare her mental: probably her batch will always be considered as “thorn” by the teachers because it seems that most of her juniors belong to smart or hardworking category. Her teachers probably will always compare her batch with the younger batch. :) And keep complaining. LOL.
PT56 08.14 130707