Thinking Freely

What exactly is the fundamental problem with our education? We never answer this question with a cool head, even though the answer should be the center of all our ideas in formulating policies to improve education.

KOMPAS/SYAHNAN RANGKUTI

Elementary school children in Tegal village, Ciseeng district, Bogor regency, West Java, go home after school. They still smile even though some of them will no longer receive an education as secondary schools are not available in their village, while transportation costs are too expensive. Even though junior high school is included in compulsory education, there are still many children who drop out of school.

Thus far, changes in education policies and rules have been mostly oriented to address symptoms rather than the root of the problem. These symptoms include the low competence of graduates, the low productivity and quality of scientific work as well as rampant dishonorable behavior, such as corruption, by the educated circles.

Departing from the struggle and experience of enlivening the world of education for more than 30 years, I am pretty sure that the fundamental problem of education is our failure to lead children and young people to think independently. This problem has reached an acute stage, to the effect that many intellectuals lack either the gut or the ability to make sentences of their own. The rise of plagiarism is clear evidence of this shortage of courage and independent thinking.

A follow-up phenomenon that is suffocating is the frequent demand of using software to test the similarity of a document with existing ones. This is demanded not only for scientific papers but also for general reports, such as the self-description in a lecturer’s portfolio or accreditation forms. Imagine how acute the problem of independent thinking is if an intellectual is incapable of describing himself and takes a shortcut by plagiarizing other people\'s descriptions.

Also read: PISA and Our Human Resource’s Capacity

There are many similar phenomena at various levels. Students are in grave difficulty when asked to formulate something in their own language. Several students who take computer programming exams try to answer by remembering the program text in the books rather than formulating their own algorithms that are not so complicated. At lower levels of education, we easily find the phenomenon where our children lose the courage to argue and express problems. The most obvious data is the low grades of our children in solving problems that require higher order thinking as demanded by PISA.

This condition of our education manifests itself in school life, which tends to be less passionate, formalistic and disconnected from the environment and daily lives of the students. Finally, children in school lose excitement, enthusiasm, authenticity, confidence and responsibility. This all stems from the stagnation of the courage to think independently or think freely.

KOMPAS/FERGANATA INDRA RIATMOKO

Students of Muhammadiyah 1 alternative junior high school in Magelang, Central Java, write letters to Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim on 24 Oct. 2019 to express their hopes and expectations for the newly installed minister. Many of the 345 students who participated in the activity asked that the government to review the school’s zoning area.

Afraid of independent thinking

This fear of independent thinking is fatal, because it has given birth to a generation that is not confident, afraid to take a stance, easily manipulated, and dull about their unique potential. Such a generation will be less creative, not having the courage to try to be independent, which is indeed full of risks, and less critical of the reality around their lives. What is even more worrying is their vulnerability to being mobilized politically because of their weak critical thinking skills.

The bitter reality of our world of education seems to be even more bitter when we place it in the context of the development of this era, which demands the birth of creative and innovative young people. How can creativity and innovation grow from a generation that does not have the courage to think independently?

Also read : Learning from PISA

Actually, it is not difficult to trace the cause of this heartbreaking reality. The repressive and centralistic political system of the New Order era has left our education more devoted to the authorities than to the students, because a repressive government will choose a uniform policy to facilitate control and supervision.

As a result, teachers do not dare to think and act independently, out of fear and the fact that they are safer if they obey the instructions of their superiors. The teaching profession is slowly eroded until it becomes simply an apparatus that works on the basis of orders and instructions. Even though we have enjoyed the Reform Era for more than 20 years, the main role of the government has not changed much from the paradigm of control and supervision to the empowerment.

The great idea of the Education and Culture Minister with the theme "Merdeka Belajar" (Freedom to Learn) can indeed be a good start for educational reform. However, the theme has not yet been targeted at the root of the problem at hand.

The fundamental problem of our education lies not only in the technical aspect of learning, but at a deeper stage, namely the paradigmatic level. Our education has lost its basic orientation, namely the development of a courage and independence of thinking.

Moreover, at present, the freedom of learning does not encounter any obstacles, because the internet provides all kinds of knowledge. The main problem is the absence of the need and courage to think independently.

Learning is indeed a complex thing, so its success is not primarily related to technical matters such as the availability of teaching materials and teachers. The spirit of learning is a matter of self-attitude and mood, because it is positively correlated with curiosity, self-confidence and optimism. Therefore, learning events will develop if the world of education can foster these three stances. One of the prerequisites for the development of these three stances is the freedom of thinking and experimenting and an openness to accept inadequacies or mistakes.

Therefore, reformative, fundamental and long-term oriented education policies must aim to restore the ecosystem of "free thinking" at schools. The freedom of thinking must first be possessed by teachers and lecturers. This presupposes a change in learning paradigm from learning something to criticizing something. Learning must extend beyond mastering ready-made knowledge to the search for new possibilities or alternatives.

The birth of teachers and lecturers who have the freedom to think requires an educational administration system that is simple, flexible and respects the uniqueness of educational institutions. Therefore, broad autonomy must be given to schools and campuses. The broad autonomy is not only in accordance with the reality of the diversity of the situation of schools and campuses in Indonesia but also becomes a concrete manifestation of the Education and Culture Ministry\'s motto Tut Wuri Handayani (encouraging from behind).

KOMPAS/BAHANA PATRIA GUPTA

Students of SDN Gentong state elementary school receive trauma treatment on Monday (11/11/2019) at Madini Giniuri (madin) Al Ghofuriyah Gentong in Pasuruan, East Java.

Broad autonomy

Granting broad autonomy will surely torment various parties that have so far enjoyed the established order and reluctance to think. We must understand this, because our education system, which lacks passion and innovation, is the result of the lack of autonomy and freedom, from administrative matters up to the examination model. Only a broad degree of autonomy that gives teachers and schools the freedom to think and educate with their particular characteristics can finally restore the true spirit of education, namely honesty, joy, confidence and creativity.

Broad autonomy means giving teachers sufficient confidence to teach according to their abilities and potential and as far as possible to free them from administrative burdens. Besides that, the content of the primary and secondary education curriculum needs to be reduced in the type of subject matters, so that there is enough time to provide learning experiences in the fields of language, literature and art. These fields will provide unlimited space for the growth of imagination, creativity and critical thinking.

Every school needs to be given the freedom to develop a curriculum, learning and organizational governance in accordance with its capacity and uniqueness.

Other competencies that need to be developed are creative writing skills and scientific-critical thinking through daily contextual problem-solving. Consequently, every school needs to be given the freedom to develop a curriculum, learning and organizational governance in accordance with its capacity and uniqueness.

At the level of universities, broad autonomy entails the granting of flexibility to open and close study programs according to the needs of the community. The government only needs to set a mechanism for the submission of new study programs accompanied by minimum requirements for the availability of human resources and infrastructure.

The development of independent critical thinking can be done through projects or case-based learning models. It would be better if each university equipped its students with the philosophy of science as a way to strengthen the foundation of critical-scientific thinking in writing thesis.

Johanes Eka Priyatma, Rector of Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta.