|
Indonesia Primary and Secondary Education
Following kindergarten, Indonesians of between seven
and twelve
years of age were required to attend six years of primary
school in
the 1990s. They could choose between state-run,
nonsectarian public
schools supervised by the Department of Education and
Culture or
private or semiprivate religious (usually Islamic) schools
supervised and financed by the Department of Religious
Affairs.
However, although 85 percent of the Indonesian population
was
registered as Muslim, according to the 1990 census, less
than 15
percent attended religious schools (see
table 10,
Appendix).
Enrollment figures were slightly higher for girls than
boys and
much higher in Java than the rest of Indonesia.
A central goal of the national education system in the
early
1990s was not merely to impart secular wisdom about the
world, but
also to instruct children in the principles of
participation in the
modern nation-state, its bureaucracies, and its moral and
ideological foundations. Since 1975, a key feature of the
national
curriculum--as in other parts of society--had been
instruction in
the Pancasila. Children age six and above learned its five
principles--belief in one God, humanitarianism, national
unity,
democracy, and social justice--by rote and were instructed
daily to
apply the meanings of this key national symbol to their
lives. The
alleged communist coup attempt in 1965 provided a vivid
image of
transgression against the Pancasila. Partly to prove their
rejection of communist ideology, all teachers--like other
members
of Indonesian bureaucracy--swore allegiance not only to
the
Pancasila, but to the government party of functional
groups,
Golkar
(see Political Parties
, ch. 4;
Glossary).
Inside the public school classroom of the early 1990s,
a style
of pedagogy prevailed that emphasized rote learning and
deference
to the authority of the teacher. Although the youngest
children
were sometimes allowed to use the local language, by the
third year
of primary school nearly all instruction was conducted in
formal
Indonesian. Instead of asking questions of the students, a
standard
teaching technique was to narrate a historical event or to
describe
a mathematical problem, pausing at key junctures to allow
the
students to fill in the blanks. By not responding to
individual
problems of the students and retaining an emotionally
distanced
demeanor, the teacher is said to be sabar
(patient), which
is considered admirable behavior.
Nationally, the average class size in primary schools
was
approximately twenty-seven, while upper-level classes
included
between thirty and forty students. Ninety-two percent of
primary
school students graduated, but only about 60 percent of
those
continued on to junior high school (ages thirteen through
fifteen).
Of those who went on to junior high school, 87 percent
also went on
to a senior high school (ages sixteen through eighteen).
The
national adult literacy rate remained at about 77 percent
in 1991
(84 percent for males and 68 percent for females), keeping
Indonesia tied with Brunei for the lowest literacy among
the six
member nations of the Association for Southeast Asian
Nations
(ASEAN--see Glossary).
In the early 1990s, after completion of the six-year
primary
school program, students could choose among a variety of
vocational
and preprofessional junior and senior high schools, each
level of
which was three years in duration. There were academic and
vocational junior high schools that could lead to
senior-level
diplomas. There were also "domestic science" junior high
schools
for girls. At the senior high-school level, there were
three-year
agricultural, veterinary, and forestry schools open to
students who
had graduated from an academic junior high school. Special
schools
at the junior and senior levels taught hotel management,
legal
clerking, plastic arts, and music.
Teacher training programs were varied, and were
gradually
upgraded. For example, in the 1950s anyone completing a
teacher
training program at the junior high level could obtain a
teacher's
certificate. Since the 1970s, however, the teaching
profession was
restricted to graduates of a senior high school for
teachers in a
primary school and to graduates of a university-level
education
course for teachers of higher grades. Remuneration for
primary and
secondary school teachers compared favorably with
countries such as
Malaysia, India, and Thailand. Student-teacher ratios also
compared
favorably with most Asian nations at 25.3 to 1 and 15.3 to
1,
respectively, for primary and secondary schools in the
mid-1980s
when the averages were 33.1 to 1 and 22.6 to 1 for
Asian-Pacific
countries.
Data as of November 1992
|
