School, fraud and the sacrifice of Socrates

Two days after the story of the embarrassing administration of the national exams broke, a parent looking for an elementary school for his son asked me if my school was ready to implement the new curriculum.

After several seconds, I said that my school would surely follow it. We have tried to learn whatever we could about it and have been following a subject-integrated curriculum for some time. The school has been waiting to receive a complete version of the new curriculum.

The new academic year is drawing near. No comprehensive documents detailing the new curriculum have been released.

As a private school, we have had difficulties in answering those kind of questions from parents. We realize that parents have often been bewildered by corruption in our national education system. Their emotional burden regarding the future of their children very frequently leads them to unnecessary hesitation. They easily forget that school is just a part of a child’s entire education. Many of the parents make choices based on incorrect referrals.

In implementing programs, whether a new curriculum or new government policy, private schools are always in second place behind state schools.

An instance of this unfair treatment can be seen in the requirement that private schools to follow the lead of state schools, although the state schools might be poorer in quality. Here, poor quality should not be misunderstood as a dearth in operational funds. State schools receive more than enough cash from the government and they also raise funds from parents.

Private schools, especially new ones, those with a small number of students or with those with limited financial capability, are in a difficult position.

While most policies are administrative or procedural in nature, schools must implement them at an expense of funds, energy or time. This happens for the national exams, changes to the curriculum, new school accreditation processes and also for policies made by subdistrict or district state educational agencies.

In the district where I manage a school, for example, we have to spare certain amount of money every month to anticipate such policies. Recently, for example, related to a program called National Standard School Exams (USBN) for sixth graders, we had to pay, without protest, Rp 260,000 (US$26.80) per student.

What we have received in return has been poor quality exam papers prepared by local educational agencies as well as infuriating service provided by the school used by our students to take exams.

Back to the parent’s initial question in the opening of this article, as a private school, we tend to develop our own way to survive and in many cases to perform better, not only than private schools, but fully state-supported schools, too.

So, in responding to the above question, we must be able to ensure parents that we have distinct values. We often have to make them realize that changes in the national curriculum never amount to much and that the changes are more in administrative.

We actually do not want to misunderstand any alternatives proposed by the Education and Culture Ministry. But it has been often that change has been introduced to whitewash a problem and not to cope with it.

The plan to omit English from the curriculum of primary schools is a clear instance of the whitewash policy. The inability to assure fun, creative and effective learning processes at schools has camouflaged with an injudicious move: removing difficult topics from the curriculum.

By the same token, the ministry is disorganized. Questionable policies have been introduced to show that the ministry exists and does something. In fact, besides its 2.6 trillion rupiah cost, the plan to unnecessarily change the curriculum just makes things worse in the eyes of the public.

However, as citizens, we might learn something from what Socrates did thousands of years ago. Because of his dissenting opinion, he was forced to commit suicide, despite the public belief that he was right and the state was wrong. We in the end have to respect the existence of the state while at the same time hoping that all of the fraud and incompetence springs from ignorance, not heartlessness.

Khairil Azhar  ;   

A School Manager and A Researcher at Paramadina Foundation Jakarta

JAKARTA POST, 04 Mei 2013

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Exam and the death of the sound mind

   In front of their friends and parents, the education specialist called the students one-by-one. Every student got a five or 10 minute healing procession. Acting like a hypnotist, or more precisely, like a traditional shaman, he began by asking each of them to repeat what he recited, which comprised Islamic sacred words arranged in a random order.

 After making sure of each student’s mesmerization, he started to investigate (or make the students confess), asking questions about the mistakes they committed — mainly related to the preparations for the upcoming national exams — and making them pledge not to repeat the mistakes again and to better themselves in the future.

 In a normal situation, when there is no pressure such as the obligation to pass the National Exams, I would not be sure that the students would willingly follow the above practice.

  First, public interrogation in front of friends, parents and other spectators is actually an embarrassment. This would be even more keenly felt by teenagers, who often feel awkward among their friends or other people.

 Second, while some or many of them seemed to accept the practice, we should be aware of behavioral deviation phenomena, such as masochism or a feeling of excitement when a person is physically or psychologically abused.

 At the same time, recalling the fact that our children are mentally socially constructed to a certain extent, we must be more critical with the emerging “religious” practice at almost all schools called muhasabah, or retreat, which is intended to make them better prepared before the National Exams.

 Listening to their answers of why they went on retreat, many of the students have said that they would be able to answer exam questions more easily because they were the hands of God.

 Many think that it can be an instant way out of their laziness problem or learning disorders.

 In fact, we know, positive knowledge of science, math, or languages can only be acquired through learning, reasoning and experiencing. The knowledge is not implanted because of the mercy of God because of their piety.

 Many of the students, as well as their teachers, think that a long and often painful process of learning is not necessary; that relentless effort will eventually surrender to the iron fist of fortune. Or else, they are made believe that the process is less necessary than the end result. Consequently, dishonesty materializes in form of shortcuts such as cheating or teachers helping their students to pass the exams illegally.

 To this point, while the concept of the National Exams is not wrong, the practices that have evolved before and after their implementation are.

 On one hand, the process is intended to ensure a quality education for all Indonesian children. Yet on the other hand, the process lends itself to the assassination of logical and reasoning ability in students.

 Back to the story of the education shaman. We have to mention that the National Exams are a blessing for him. He can enjoy more money than what is received by an ordinary teacher in a month.

 He need only memorized a few sacred words, possess a rhetoric ability and build connections with school principals.

 The shaman would never think that the parents have to pay more than their ordinary tuition fees because of the preparations for the National Exams — a fund-raising practice that has been prohibited.

 It is simply because they think like real businessmen without sufficient empathy for the suffering of the others.

 Talking to some teachers, I promised that I would never let my children experience the practice. I believe that once sound minds are interfered with by illogical or unreasonable activities, they might lose their passion to learn and experience normally.

 Similarly, their consciences will be trimmed down gradually once they are accustomed to enjoying instant or effortless success.

 Students who have been forced to do unreasonable things by the people who fear their own failures should have a forgiving heart. Forget the embarrassing public confession and do not let it linger your memory. Just believe in yourself and never compromise your integrity.

Khairil Azhar  ;  

A School Manager and A Researcher at the Paramadina Foundation

JAKARTA POST, 13 April 2013

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Curriculum 2013 and ‘the fences eating the plants’

 Officers from the state educational technical implementation unit (UPTD) together with the principals of several Bekasi subdistrict elementary schools went to Bali recently to visit its state elementary schools.

 Looking at the “title” of the activity, there seemed to be absolutely nothing wrong. Wanting to greater develop their own institutions they wanted to use the experience to learn the systems that could not be found in the Greater Jakarta area.

 However, the decision to go on this trip beggars the question; “Why go to Bali?” And perhaps more importantly, “How was a trip like this possible?” Now, if we take in to consideration the limited funds and poor facilities at state-owned schools: How could they afford the trip at all?

 Two weeks prior to the group’s departure, I was informed that our school finance officer had been asked to pay around Rp 6.5 million (US$669.4) to the local UPTD. The cash was earmarked to buy books for our library.

 Strangely, the books were sourced from one publisher and we never knew what books we were to receive or if we really needed them or not.

 Characteristically, for this country, if you want your school to be “safe” there should be no questions asked and whatever materials you need to operate a school legally in this country must be obtained through the UPTD office. Your dependence will be more if your school receives grants from the state such as the school block grant (Bantuan Operasional Sekolah, BOS).

 It has been a week since we accepted the Rp 6.5 million price tagged books. But, we have not opened the package yet and it is likely we will never.

 Some teachers have commented after looking at the package, “Did they really cost Rp 6.5 million?” There is an unspoken pain that hangs around these teachers — professionals who are underpaid despite working hard from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. every single day.

 It must be acknowledged that small and big publishers alike have to deal with state officials and state schools or private schools and corrupt management.

 Consequently, idealist teachers or school administrators face only two choices: to swim in the turbid water or to find another school and job, if one is available.

 Welcoming the 2013 Curriculum, which is now in the socialization phase, we could assume the same “corrupt” incidents will inevitably occur more.

 While the level of dependence of schools on state officials has been reduced in the school-based curriculum (KTSP), the new one conversely requires more intervention from various other offices.

 Beside local offices, there are other institutions that will be more involved, such as the State Teachers’ Training Center (LPTK) and the State Educational Quality Control Agency (LPMP).

 One of the main problems Indonesian education faces is the quality and integrity of the teachers and school administrators, there will be excessive “transactional” affairs between them and the state educational officers or individuals working for the agencies.

 I could not imagine how the senior teachers or administrators with limited informational and computer technology will deal with the new sophisticated but naïve requirements. Behavior will likely mirror what we, unfortunately, see at the teacher certification level.

 Whereby, some, individuals try hard to pass the process and others exploit the multiple transactional shortcuts: either bribing the trainers or by paying other teachers or persons to prepare the things they need.

 Even regarding the officers themselves, more comically, it is frequently found that school supervisors, often former school principals, could not use Microsoft Power Point and would suddenly end their presentation and call time. More saddening, is the recurrence of individuals who do not understand what they are talking about.

 For school administrators, however, regardless of the degree of quality given by educational officers, they should continue to pay respect but through another kind of transaction, for example an envelope with certain amount of money every time they come. It is absolutely necessary to ease their experience whenever they deal with them.

 The “well-trained teachers” often assist (or coach) their colleagues in teaching, we therefore must be aware of another transaction that might happen.

 Beside unnecessary individual gratification, a “copy and paste” practice has mushroomed, especially, since the endorsement of school accreditation.

 However, with the difficulty of teaching administration faced by many teachers, regarding both quantity and quality, the practice is the best shortcut.

 With the greater possibility of pagar makan tanaman or the fences eating the plants — where the guardians oppositely exploit the guarded ones — we should consider implementing the 2013 Curriculum soon.

 Besides the fact that the new curriculum appears to be substantially more theological and without scientific method coherence, we should make a better choice.

  It is not about being laggards, less patriotic or unreligious regarding the curriculum innovation, but it is more than the innovation itself that will potentially make more mess.

 Likewise, we are really in need of trustful guardians who think of how better education should be instead of merely managing illegal paths to raise funds to amuse themselves in Bali.

Khairil Azhar ; 

A School Manager and A Researcher

at Paramadina Foundation, Jakarta

JAKARTA POST, 02 Maret 2013

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Campus and violence, a reflection

Amid the bad news of violence on several Indonesian campuses, as we nowadays frequently see on TV or read in the newspaper, there are surely best practices at many other educational institutions that have been more successful in both academic and socio-ethical achievements as well as in dispensing with the students’ outbursts.

 We therefore have to take a better look at the schools or universities that we may have thus far overlooked. They might be next to our houses, in the remote provinces of Indonesia or they might even be our own campuses from the past.

 In my first days at a state university in 1994, for instance, I had an amazing experience with initiation activities that was different from the bad stories from other campuses at that time. All new students certainly had fears that there would be both physical and verbal abuse, but those fears never materialized.

 Physical activities were limited to early morning workouts. For the next five or six hours of each day that week, we had to attend seminars, conduct small group discussions, write papers and defend them in front of a plenary session. The seniors, many with long hair, skinny bodies and rumpled clothes, seemed to show off how “intellectual” they were and encouraged us to follow the same course.

 For example, my friends and I once were stopped at a “checkpoint” in front of the office of the students’ association. Instead of asking us to do push-ups or crawl around, one of the seniors showed us a book with a blue cover, entitled Islam Ditinjau Dari Berbagai Aspeknya (Islam viewed from its diverse aspects), written by the late Prof. Harun Nasution, an Indonesian Muslim reformist.

 The skinny senior asked, “Have you read this book?” He then questioned us about “heavyweight” problems for about 10 minutes before letting us go. Later, I knew, the book had been seen for many years taken as the “holy book” among the students and open-minded lecturers of the university. It encourages readers not to understand Islam monolithically but to use a number of possible perspectives.

 My encounter with violence on campus started with my joining the student regiment (Menwa) the same year. The semi-military unit of the university introduced both verbal and physical violence. We learned how to abide by instructions and to make others act upon ours.

 We were disciplined mentally and physically, and through this discipline we were controlled by the higher ranks of the military unit, even up to the level of state military forces. We were deployed to informing one another about what we heard and saw, and to channel the information to our seniors.

 As new students, we were persuaded off campus, before, along and after initiation camp, to decide which voluntary organization we would join. As it was an Islamic state-owned campus, there were three main choices: the Muslim Students Association (HMI), the Muhammadiyah Students Association (IMM) or the Indonesian Muslim Students Movement (PMII).

 If we really involved ourselves in one of these groups, as happened with many of my friends, there was relatively no time or energy left to even think of abusing others physically. Instead, due to the intellectual and political nature of the organizations, we seemed to be drilled with reading, analyzing and reasoning in making decisions individually or organizationally as well as how to implement them.

 Our conflicts were then related to what we called “ideological” problems. Our contestations were about how to recruit as many new members as possible for our “ideological” organization and to win the majority of seats and chairmanships in any of the campus organizations. Besides the oratory abilities we honed in meetings and lobbying, having one’s writing capabilities proven with the publication of an article in a national newspapers was a highly appreciated thing.

 Moreover, if we were really interested with the world of ideas and intellectual activism, there were small but influential discussion groups available at that time.

 We could join the Ciputat Students Forum (Formaci), Flamboyant Shelter or Piramida Circle. In these “serious” groups we could enjoy the great ideas of the Greek thinkers, past and present notable Muslim scholars, the intellectual quandaries of Karl Marx or Foucault or the incomparable works of Leo Tolstoy.

 We could say that we were busy activating our minds and looking at the world we live in from different perspectives. If there were thoughts to “attack” others, they were in intellectual corridors and with scientific drives and vehicles.

 Physical brawls inside the campus were often strangely associated with the activities of the Student Regiment (Menwa). We labeled them “senseless” and “norak” (tasteless).

 Also associated with the tastelessness was the tendency of the “student politicians” to deploy rhetoric and unintellectual political statements in their campaigns and academic discussions.

 Nowadays, pragmatism seems to have taken over everywhere, and the students are technocratically prepared more to be “machine men” instead of “freely thinking humans”. This might be a deliberate choice by the state as “the old student activism” might be thought of as dangerous or useless.

 However, this begs the question as to whether there are enough outlets and efforts to channel the potential dynamics of the university students to useful ends. What has been done so far by the Education and Culture Ministry, for instance, other than the de-politicization of students’ lives and privatization of state universities?

Khairil Azhar ;

A Researcher at Paramadina Foundation

and Ciputat School for Democratic Islam

JAKARTA POST, 20 Oktober 2012

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