A shocking event in the morning on that day spreads fast to the entire village. A 17 years old girl, who was a senior high school student, has committed a suicide by hanging herself on the roof wooden rebar in her room using her torn bedcover. Form a note she left on the bed, it is found that the reason for doing such a horrible thing is due to her depression caused by the feeling of failure and of incapability to pass the national final test for Senior High School Students.
Probably, most of you have ever heard such kind of news. May be more than once such bad act happened all over Indonesia.
This kind of feeling actually shared among so many students in Indonesia. The final test has always been seen as the evil that will destroy them. The final test has been bad dreams for so many students. They have always said that they are not ready and not so sure of whether they are ready or not. Even though for some students who have studied hard to prepare themselves for the test, they still depict the test as a torturing moment.
This happens not only in the big cities with the complete educational facilities but also in remote area where students have to walk far just to get educated. The facilities are almost none in very remote area like the riparian area, not to mention the very closed and far area which takes days just to reach it.
The situation pictured above has raised some questions from those who concern on the education development. Some of the questions are of why the students feel that way and act that way to the final test. The grand question is what actually happens to our education system. Many people suspect of the students who are lazy, spoilt and lack of the spirit to study. The others blame on the life style that makes everything easy and destroy the willingness to fight and to work hard to obtain something. Life has been easy which creates an easy mental condition which finally paralyzes the fighting spirit of the students.
Apart from the issues jotted down above, the most have seen that the problem caused by the inexistence of the grand design of the Indonesian educational system which is thoroughly captured the essential and enabling factors leading to the achievement of the previously set goals. Most of the time, we can witness that the government is more reactive than proactive. The government sees that the present problems have no connection to the past and the future of the education itself.
The development of the nation human source in creating the assurance of the continuity and sustainability of the state has not been in their mind. The policy has always been implemented on the crash-program basis. The problem raising has been thoughtlessly addressed. The policy makers have always created a short-term program. To the worst that the policy takers have a mindset that he or she will not be considered being successful if only continuing the predecessors’ program and plan.
Being a policy maker means to create and establish something new regardless the connectivity with the past and continuity in the future. People, particularly the students’ parents’ experience the changes that happen from time to time. The sample of this situation is that the students have to buy new books instead of using the inherited book from the seniors. The book is called new though that the fact tells that the content remains the same while the chapter arrangement is changed. So many times we have a sight of a student of elementary school has to walk with the back bent because of having to carry a big bag full of books for today’s lesson.
The more the books student have the more stress felt by the students will be. Adding to the worse, the teachers seem to lack of concern on how the students deal with so many lesson materials. One thing for sure is that all the blanks in the books must be filled out. The students’ efforts and ways to filled out the blanks have never been the teachers concern any more.
The achievement has been measured from how high the score the students make without figuring out what the way is. The process has lost its existence and meaning. In that sense, the education has never been seen as a tradition, a long term process that requires a thorough design to achieve a set of goals leading to the at large the development of the country.
As the capable and able human resource is the main enabling factor of sustainable country development and the education is the main means of supplying the required human resource, the government should have paid more and close attention to the education. To implant the thought of the continuous process of learning that in the end to establish a tradition that will last through decades and be timeless, the policy makers must change the existing approach that it deals only with the present problem.
It must be admitted that in the journey of establishing such a tradition there will be stumbling blocks but at the same time building blocks. These stumbling blocks should be treated as the part of the dynamism of the process than the problem that must dictate the change to whole design. The fundamental foundation must be constructed first as the solid and long standing platform where the others means and facility can be installed and erected, is imperative.
This approach actually is not a new thing. The developed countries have experienced the fruit of establishing such an educational tradition. To be connected and compatible to the global educational system in terms of that the Indonesian graduate can be absorbed in international employment market, the government could, if not replicate, adjust to the previously established system of education.
Contrary to above, the government approach has always been connected to the nationalism and Indonesian values which are not favorable to the initiatives of establishing the system. The worst one is that the education is seen as a project that it will benefit all the stakeholders in a very short time.
From now on, the government has to change the whole design. The policy makers have to change the long standing mindset of a new official meaning a new system. The education must not be viewed as a project. An education must be seen as a long standing process and in the end become an established tradition which some time in the future will gain recognition from all over the world and finally it can be as one of the sources in generating country income.
The establishment efforts are the collaborative ones that involve every stakeholder who happens to be the whole Indonesia people. The history informs us that our neighboring country learnt from us to start and to establish its educational system. Some time in the past Indonesia exported human resources. This fact actually shows us that Indonesia owns the basic modalities to become one of countries which are internationally recognized in education.
The smart people are still there in Indonesia. The brain drain that has happened must be stopped by doing such a significant reconstruction to the Indonesian educational grand design. The change must be for all stakeholders’ benefit and ultimately for the interest of the country welfare. There have been proofs of the fact the countries who have paid attention to their human resources has obtained a significant progress in all aspect of the development that take the countries to the higher tier of the recognized prestigious civilization.
In light with that, it is expected that with the understanding and mindset that an education is not just a score which is achieved in a very short time, not a project whose result could be seen instantly, not the short standing event that will finish in due course, and not an easy journey that blocks us from the awareness of development out there, the occurrences as depicted at the very beginning above will never take place again for the students will never be depressed to face the test since they will have prepared themselves much earlier before the test.
One day in the future, as the education is viewed as a process and a tradition, the students can craft a smile on their face every time they deal with a test, even the final test. The students, the parents, the community and the government must take a part in this process and have the consciousness in this issue but the trigger is still the policy maker; the government.
The test, final test and national test are around the corner. We hope such a tragic moment as depicted above will never show up again in the news in Indonesia. Fingers crossed.
