The critics of the national education system bill send a reminder over the socio-cultural and economic changes that have had a profound impact on the world of education in this country.
By
Idi Subandy Ibrahim
·5 minutes read
Come post-pandemic, the dimming ray of hope is beginning to glimmer. While retrieving passion in all aspects of life, it has yet to shed light particularly on the field of education, which seems to be embroiled in a recurrent polemic.
The learned lesson is that human education is very complex and multidimensional. This is probably why distinguished figures of earlier generations, such as Soedjatmoko, Sartono Kartodirdjo, Mochtar Buchori, YB Mangunwijaya, Andi Hakim Nasution, J Drost, Ahmad Syafii Maarif and Azyumardi Azra — to name a few — used to warn against toying with education.
As an indispensable field to the intellectualization of the nation, the issue of education is always intriguing. The polemic that may arise should not be seen as an intellectual show-off, but likely a manifestation of a sense of belonging. Criticism and even rejection of some educational figures and activists over the latest draft of the 2022 national education system bill are a representation of their concern about the legislation draft they consider not participatory, not visionary and not practical to the basic problems. It contains rigid curricula and may lead to the commercialization of education.
The critics of the national education system bill send a reminder over the socio-cultural and economic changes that have had a profound impact on the world of education in this country. The impact has prompted a change not only in the direction of educational politics, but also the orientation of the academic world and scientific culture. For instance, there is an increasing trend in the quantity of young people in several universities with ominous problems arising from managing such a huge human resource.
He was concerned about the decline in the quality of graduates, academic ethics and scientific rigor.
This reminds us of the view of Edward Shils made several decades ago regarding a "mass university" in industrialized countries serving tens of thousands of students. In his famous book, The Academic Ethics, Shils mentions that the larger the number of universities, the more intense will be the intrigue for seats. He said an excessively large number of students resulted in low-quality graduates. He was concerned about the decline in the quality of graduates, academic ethics and scientific rigor.
Indonesia has been moving toward the trend of mass universities in the last two decades. On one hand, it is marked with physical advancement indicated by the increasingly awe-looking campus buildings, although this does not necessarily go in parallel with the quality of academic performance or welfare of the lecturers. In fact, if you look closely, you will find that to fulfill the satisfaction of students and attract prospective students from middle-class society, some universities have expanded their lahan parkir (parking lot for vehicles) rather than lahan pikir (space to develop thinking faculty such as a library or laboratory). This is the impact of mass university, which is an orientation to satisfy the market's demand.
On the other hand, the intake capacity is enhanced to accommodate as many students as possible from several different entrance pathways. In addition to channeling the spirit of the new generation to study, the capacity enhancement was done with the motivation to raise funds. The recently uncovered corruption case in the student admissions procedure by a university chancellor is just one of the excesses of the shift in the governance of a mass university.
Mass universities are filled with young crops of the new generation who grew up in the pampering digital culture industry and who befriended Tiktok. Let's call it the “Tiktok generation”, which has a different cultural taste from the “typewriter generation”. Their academic life is inseparable from digital gadgets. The reading habit has changed and engagement in a library, which was the legacy of the typewriter generation, is seen as a waste of time. By surfing on a tsunami of information at hand, they can easily access what they are looking for. As digital reproduction is being procured at ease, coupled with their laziness, some students are cultivating a culture of plagiarizing assignments. Pragmatism trumps idealism of integrity and hard work in their scientific works.
No wonder, false facts and unfounded information often become more tempting for the Tiktok generation.
The reading culture, which has been replaced by the habit of accessing information instantly on the internet, has influenced the critical power in sorting and substantiating what trusted references are. No wonder, false facts and unfounded information often become more tempting for the Tiktok generation. False facts may turn out to be used as references in contention to sciences and scientific approaches in their search to make it viral. It is imaginable that some of them may later become the proponents of the post-truth generation. It is a phenomenon that Carlos Elías looks to criticize in his controversial book Science on the Ropes: Decline of Scientific Culture in the Era of Fake News. He discusses the rampant symptoms of irrationality found in the media and social networks that threaten the growth of the scientific spirit and culture.
Another consequence is that mass universities, in the era of disruption, have turned an educational management system into bureaucratic procedures. It is indicated by the increasing number of administrative staff members, potentially making academic culture an activity of collecting and uploading forms, files, certificates and documentation.
Bureaucracy is only practicable in a society that has not been able to regulate itself or respects others.
The trend of fighting for the bureaucracy chair of the campus administration, supported by a successful team, is only part of the excess of mass universities in Indonesia. Bureaucracy is only practicable in a society that has not been able to regulate itself or respects others.
The gap in academic communication has been partly overcome through digitalization, but the bureaucratization of education is increasingly complex and impersonal. These conditions can affect scientific communication and professional relations, which are vital for universities to be able to keep the scientific spirit of advancing knowledge alive.
ARSIP AZIS M
Idi Subandy Ibrahim
IDI SUBANDY IBRAHIM, Researcher for culture, media and communication
