Education system in Indonesia part 1

THE NATIONAL EDUCATION SYSTEM

During The Fist Long Term Program (PJP I) some important changes occurred as a result of the national education development successes of the period. In the early stages of PJP I, the national education system was still based on three laws, Laws No. 4 of 1950 and No. 12 of 1954 on the Principles of Education and Teaching in School; and No. 22 of 1961 on the Implementation of University Education. Since Law No. 2 of 1989 was brought into effect, education has been implemented as one integrated system. Based on this short discussion, the discussion of national education implementation in this chapter is divided into two periods. The first period is referred to as the national education system prior to Law No. 2/1989, and the second period is referred to as national education system according to Law No. 2/1989.

The Education System Prior to Law No. 2/1989

During the period of time that REPELITA I to IV were implemented, the national education system was still implemented based on two legal documents that had not reflected unity in the national education system. As Law No 4/1950, Law No. 12/1954 and Law No. 22/1961 were still valid, they were often considered as a constraint for educational development based on Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution. These legal documents did not reflect a foundation of unity in the national education system, as it was then based on the outmoded laws of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Indonesia and they were also not in accordance with the 1945 Constitution.

The implementation of higher education which is needed to keep pace with the development of science and technology during PJP I is in fact still faced basic constraints. The development of higher education in Indonesia was retarded because the structure of higher education was still very simple in accordance with the conditions of the early 1960’s. The higher education program was far too academic (as is reflected in the Bachelor and Graduate pro- grams) but was probably well suited to the needs of society during the 1960’s. However, it clearly lacked the ability or capacity to adapt to the faster pace of modem economic development. The slow development of higher education was not only reflected in the number of students and educational institutions, but particularly in the narrow scope of variety of higher education programs. A much broader range of topics and abilities were needed in higher education to adapt it to the more complex needs of society. The implementation of education as was regulated by the two different laws caused the eventual realization that one national education system as desired by the 1945 Constitution, article 31 clause (2) had not been entirely achieved. In line with the two laws, the school system at that time consisted of the following levels.

1. Pre-school education which is known also as kindergarten had a one or two year duration. Based on the legislation of the time Kindergarten was only referred to as one of the types of school, and it was not stated that pre-school education was the prerequisite for entering primary school.

2. Primary school had a duration of six years of education, and received new pupils regardless of having graduated from Kindergarten or not. Based on the effective legislation, primary school was basic education that continued after the entire education of Kindergarten. This consisted of a general education program.

3. Lower secondary school with three years duration after graduation from Primary School. As reflected in the effective legislation, at that time a commitment developed that vocational education should be started in Lower Secondary School in line with the characteristics of employment that existed at the time. Employment was generally in agricultural and traditional manufacturing sectors. At this time lower secondary education was divided into two groups, i.e. general education carried out through Lower Secondary School and vocational education through Lower Vocational Secondary School. The vocational education consisted of three types of schools, Lower Secondary School—Economics, Lower Secondary School—Family Welfare, and Technical School.

4. Upper Secondary School with three or four years of study after Lower Secondary School or the vocational school equivalent. The period of REPELITA I to IV was the crucial time range for the expansion of vocational education at this level. The effective legislation at the time had considered that it was imperative to develop vocational secondary education, so apart from general secondary education through general upper secondary school, there was also rapid growth in the range of types of vocational upper secondary schools. Apart from schools that were the continuation of vocational lower secondary education — that are, Upper Secondary School-Economics, Upper Secondary School-Family Welfare, and Secondary Technical School — the other types of schools developed were: Teacher Education School, Upper Secondary Sports School, Household Technology Secondary School, Secondary School on Social Education, Secondary School on Industrial Handicraft, Secondary School on Indonesian Arts, Secondary School of Art, Secondary School of Music, and Secondary School on Agricultural Technology.

5. University with three to four years for bachelor level and five to seven years for graduate level taken up through either university, institute, academy, or other higher education institutions.

During PJP I various important changes had been made in the education system. One of the changes which occurred in the mid-1970’s was the integration of vocational education at the lower secondary levels into the general lower secondary education. Educational development in Indonesia is influenced also by research findings from the developed countries, especially donor countries such as the United States of America, Japan, and Europe. Research results in some developed countries showed that vocational education is more beneficial if started at higher education level or in industry. Indonesia still needs skilled manpower at the middle level during the early stages of industrialization, therefore vocational education is still needed at the upper secondary level.

Based on these findings, beginning in 1977, the Government changed the functions of vocational lower secondary schools—economics, family welfare and technical—to become general lower secondary schools. During REPELITA III the economics vocational schools were all changed, whereas a number of technical and family welfare schools, were still maintained until the end of REPELITA V, even though in very small numbers. By the end of REPELITA V, all of these schools were replaced by lower secondary plus or standard lower secondary schools with the addition of a number of work skills subjects.

Community education was also an integral part of the national education system at that time. Community education or out-of-school education aims at: first, to provide illiterate adults who didn’t have the opportunity to attend school with knowledge and skills, including the ability to read, write and calculate; second; to assist working adults to be more productive in their business; and; third, to reduce the development discrepancies between urban and rural areas. In order to achieve these objectives, the out-of-school education program was carried out extensively through a number of venues and methods including: (1) basic education learning groups with activities in the form of illiteracy eradication using Packet A learning materials, (2) family welfare education is a learning group which aims to create prosperous and happy families by educating participants in 10 important aspects of family welfare, (3) community vocational education includes those members of the community who study vocational work related subjects to improve their prospects, knowledge and skills in various vocations, (4) Livelihood education is offered to community members to learn various skills of enterpreneurship to improve their livelihood, and (5) out-of-school education courses conducted by the community for members who wish to learn various skills, or increase their knowledge by attending various courses according to the demand and availability.

Since early in PJP I, the government played a relatively large role in developing community education to increase learning opportunities. The President of the Republic of Indonesia introduced the strategy when he delivered the State Speech before the Parliament on 16 August 1978. The strategy of learning opportunity expansion through out-of-school channel was stated as "Other attempts to equalize educational opportunities throughout the nation is through the learning while working program or "Program Kejar", which is especially directed toward those who are outside the school system, by providing basic knowledge, ways of thinking and skills, without neglecting daily duties or work commitments. In rural areas, the ‘Kejar program’ is linked with the new style illiteracy eradication program, aimed

at the three basic areas of ignorance or three "blindnesses", i.e. Latin characters and numeracy, Indonesian language, and basic education.

The new style illiteracy eradication program or Program Kejar Packet A is called new style as it integrates illiteracy eradication with post-literacy programs in various fields of life. To meet the various needs, there were 100 Packet A books which were prepared in 22 levels of difficulties. Books AI-A20 were arranged in twenty different consecutive levels of difficulty as they were for basic education or the initial levels of the illiteracy eradication program that was the foundation material to prepare participants for the following packets. Books A21-A60 and A61-A 100 were rearranged, each in one level of difficulty, as they were the further application and more advanced modules of the literacy program.