The Jakarta Post seminar on Indonesian Education
Outside the venue
Inside the ballroom
Minutes before the seminar started
At around 9, the event was opened by an introductory speech of Jusuf Wanandi, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Jakarta Post.
View of the audience
Another view of the audience
The event started with the first session which was about “Comparing Notes – The Experience of Singapore and South Korea” which lasted from 09.15 to 10.15.
The emcees opening the event
The first keynote speaker was Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the Minister of Education and Finance of Singapore. He spoke with a slightly crisp accent (despite having been educated in the USA) about the history of education of Singapore since the independence. Having been 10 years in his current post, he was knowledgeable enough of the need of education in Southeast Asia. He basically presented how the education in Singapore was built from nothing after the separation from Malaysia (then Malaya), and how today it had incorporated various elements of the society to cater the different needs of students with their respective differing abilities and skills.
The second person to speak was Kim Shinil, the Former Deputy of Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Human Resources Development of S. Korea. He initially started his presentation of Korean education a bit longwindedly, and realizing this, he admitted to the audience jokingly how verbose his speech could become. His presentation mainly focused on how the Korean society adapted to the needs of education with differing approaches in each the rural and urban areas, especially since all males in South Korea are to be entitled to three years of National Service. He then noted how dire the Korean education was back then in his time, with cases of having 115 students per class! Its striking similarity to Indonesian education in terms of the cultural and compulsory aspect showed how the Indonesian government could learn more from Korea.
The emcee by then had introduced a last-minute speaker from the Indonesian Ministry of Education, the Director General of Higher Education Learning Fasli Djalal. Most of the seminar attendees were satisfied for his inclusion in this event, as he was going to speak on what kind of planning the Indonesian government have got in mind for its improvement.
Djalal firstly showed a presentation on the dire conditions of Indonesian education today, with its low rank in HDI, the dilapidated primary schools in various districts, the low wages of teachers, and the low percentage of qualified teachers as compared to the total number of teachers across the country. Most of the audience seemed quite excited to know what kind of visions he have brought to the seminar as to tackle those dire conditions.
Unfortunately, those two simple messages from the respective representations from South Korea and Singapore seemed unable to reach the Indonesian delegate. Instead of speaking how the Indonesian education could be improved by taking the examples of other more developed countries, Djalal showed an unrealistic vision on how the Indonesian education could be improved by focusing heavily on the use of Technology.
The presentation by then had taken turn into a several-minutes video that showed the use of the dull-looking TVRI-ish educational channel, an educational portal in the internet, an interactive radio, and how the usage of all those technological aspects above could be used more holistically in the near future.
It was a disappointment indeed. The current expenditure of education in Indonesia, which currently stays at the minute figure of 3% of the budget, was only mentioned once without any further elaboration. And he furthermore did not even touch the issue of how the welfare of teachers in the country, together with the improvement of their qualification, could be ameliorated.
The Q&A session for Session One was unfortunately expired due to the limited time both foreign delegates had on that day. Shinil had a flight to catch, while Shanmugaratnam had had other events to attend.
However, it to be commendable for the Singaporean minister that even for 10 minutes after the session expired, he chose to stay in order to answer various questions posed by the ordinary schoolteachers who attended the seminar. On the other hand, the Indonesian delegate Djalal had disappeared to nowhere; raising suspicion among ourselves of whether he was avoiding the questions we attendees had been dying to ask him.
Shanmugaratnam using body language to enliven his answers
Shanmugaratnam's answer being recorded with an MP3 Player
Shanmugaratnam's picture being taken
After 15 minutes of coffee break, the second session which was about “The Role of the Business Sector in Education” lasted from 10.30 to 11.30.
During the first coffee break
The first speaker this time was Yani Panigoro who belongs to the Board of Trustees of the Medco Foundation. She spoke English with a thick Javanese accent and her speech was regrettably read
The second speaker was James T. Riady who is the Founder and Chairman of Pelita Harapan University. He offered fresh insights on how the education in Indonesia could be improved by focusing on changing the mindset of the people from the Knowledge-oriented pedagogy to the Learning-oriented one. Being a Chinese Indonesian brought up under the Soeharto rule, he spoke of how Confucianism values had affected his upbringing greatly.
Mr Riady and Mrs Panigoro shaking hands
The Q&A session which took the remaining 20 minutes of the session had one questioner requesting both Panigoro and Riady, being two powerful people in Indonesian education, to lobby the government for the improvement of education not only limited to private sectors, but also the public institutions, where most of the Indonesian children could afford to attend. Unfortunately as it turned out, that question was diplomatically ducked by Panigoro (who chose to answer in Indonesian) presumably due to her unwillingness to do the lobbying herself.
Shown on the far left is Sabam Siagian, the first Chief editor of the Post, and the third person from the left Fasli Jalal
Riady and Panigoro engaging in conversation
Panigoro talking with Djalal
During the lunch break
After an hour of lunch break, the third session which was about “Best Practices in Primary and Secondary Schools” was held from 13.00 to 14.30.
The first speaker of this session was Father Baskoro Poedjinoegroho, the Principal of Kanisius College Jakarta. He spoke of the strict approach that the Catholic institution had implemented thus far with all the multitudinous cheatings and indiscipline actions.
Ms Amir showing presentation on High Scope Indonesia
The second person to speak on stage was Antarina S. F. Amir, the Managing Director of High Scope Indonesia. She spoke of how the High Scope educational system has been adapted to suit to the needs of Indonesian students with its Indonesian approach to a bilingual education in class and being totally founded and managed by Indonesian nationals. At the end of her presentation, she showed an interesting video of “A Vision of K-12 students in the 21st century” which aroused the interest of the audience, with various students from differing ethnicities showed messages of the current technological needs of kids today on their respective whiteboards. In the end, High Scope has shown its realistic vision towards the unpredictable demands of jobs in the future by preparing the kids with the holistic approach they teach at school.
The third speaker was Niken Asih Santjojo who is the Principal of SMAN 10 Malang, who enthusiastically spoke of the various aspects of how her school has become one of the most reputed public high schools in the country. It was unlucky that she had not shown very clearly what the main point of her presentation was.
Mrs Santjojo receiving token of appreciation
After the third session ended, the attendees were given free copies of the book “The Voice of Reason”, which a Post columnist Simon Pitchforth recently blogged about. It was an anthology of the best select of 200 editorials of The Jakarta Post during the 25 years of its conception and as an embodiment of what kinds of stances the Post has stood over its lifespan. I was quite lucky to get my book autographed by Sabam Siagian, the first editor-in-chief of The Jakarta Post. When he saw me, he guessed that I must have been a Binus student. There must have been a lot of them attending the event that he thought I was one of the students.
People "queueing" to get free copies of the book. A typical Indonesian "queue" indeed
The seminar was to end at 16.30 with the last session of “Best Practices in Tertiary Education” but alas, I had an urgent matter to attend at home that I had to leave the remaining contents of the seminar to others to write. All in all, the seminar with loads of its freebies was a nice step taken by The Post towards enlightening the life of the nation by starting on its education factor, though I honestly doubt that the points concluded in this event would be noticed at all by the Indonesian ministry.
