Nadiem on Jokowi-Ma’ruf Education Platform

The administration of Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Ma\'ruf Amin has set human resource development as a main priority.

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.

”Improving the quality of Indonesian workers”, which in Nawacita (nine-point program) was the fifth mission, now (let\'s call it) the main platform in Nawacita II.

Indeed, since the beginning of his time in power, Jokowi has defined the ”human” factor as the main problem of Indonesian people. Development so far, according to Jokowi, does not touch the paradigm, mindset, or political culture of humans who run the system so that nation-building does not lead Indonesia to its ideals (Kompas, 10/5/2014).

Therefore, Jokowi initiated the ”mental revolution”. Nevertheless, as he admitted, during the first period of his administration, he focused more on infrastructure.

HR problems do not lie in large number, but its quality has been a source of problems. Simply, there are two main problems in our human resources.

The first is related to integrity, namely mentality, such as mindset and reasoning, obedience to moral values, and the problem of national commitment. Second, the issue of productivity, namely the ability of human resources to produce something that is beneficial to the lives of themselves and others. Amartya Sen, winner of the 1998 Nobel Economic Prize (Development as Freedom, 1998) discussed human resources that did not support progress, including those with low production capabilities coupled with high population growth so that the rate of unemployment and underemployment was high.

HR problems do not lie in large number, but its quality has been a source of problems.

How to build human resources and overcome these two problems. This will be reflected in the way the government designs, manages and organizes the national education system.

Education, Nawacita, and National Mid-term Development Plan (RPJMN)

In Nawacita II, education is the third and fourth program of action from the first mission: improving the quality of Indonesian people. First, the government will reform the education system by expanding access for the community to education. Among them, accelerate the 12-year compulsory education, build supporting infrastructure and provide scholarships. The rest will include the acceleration of the equal distribution of quality education by improving education standards, the welfare of lecturers and teachers and mental education, character and literacy improvements.

Second, the government will revitalize vocational education and training to prepare skilled human resources according to industry needs and technological developments. Vocations expand labor and student access to education and skills/entrepreneurship training.

KOMPAS/FRANSISKUS PATI HERIN

Teaching and learning activities for earthquake victims of SDN 1 Waai state elementary school in Waai village, Salahutu district, Central Maluku regency, Maluku, on Tuesday (19/12/2019). Ambon continued to feel the aftershocks of an earthquake until Tuesday.

In contrast to Nawacita, in the 2020-2024 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN), increasing quality and competitive human resources is not the main one, but the third program of the seven development agendas.

In the direction of HR development policies related to education, the focus of activities is on increasing the distribution of quality education services through improving the quality of teaching and learning; increasing equitable access to education by accelerating the 12-year compulsory education; increasing professionalism, quality, management, and placement of educators/education personnel in an equal way; strengthening education quality assurance to improve the distribution of quality of services among education units and among regions; improving education governance, financing strategy, improvement of the effectiveness of budget utilization.

From the two bases of the HR development platform, besides the absence of the same sensitivity regarding the importance of HR development, the two of them do not show the main stream that will be carried out by the government in the world of education. With the idea of Mental Revolution and development of human resources as priorities, it should be clearly illustrated the axis of change in educational operations, such as the clear focus of building toll roads on infrastructure development in the previous period.

Observing the theme of the RPJMN IV 2020-2024, ”Indonesia which is Prosperous, Fair with Sustainable High-Middle Income”, also from various speeches of Jokowi —among them in the explanation of the 2020 Draft State Budget at the House of Representatives (DPR) Plenary Meeting—which always links HR development with increased competitiveness in the economic context, it seems that the main idea in the minds of the government is the economic development, not human resource development.

The appointment of Nadiem Makarim as Education and Culture Minister makes Jokowi’s policy seem unusual,

Unfortunately, such economic thinking models have underlined HR development during the New Order, so that as the result the paradigm and mindset have not been touched by development as mentioned above. Although the government\'s education platform seems normal, the appointment of Nadiem Makarim as Education and Culture Minister makes Jokowi\'s policy seem unusual. The appointment of Nadiem is a ”disruption”, and apparently the President also expects Nadiem to ”disrupt” in our stagnant world of education.

The President has repeatedly said our education is just like that, without significant progress, while the world is changing very fast. Nadiem seems to be a ”factor” modifier and accelerator in the Jokowi-Ma\'ruf education platform.

The President’s message to the new Minister of Education and Culture, make our education flexible, simple, and not ”as usual”. The President asked Nadiem to apply technology to our education system so that there will be a ”leap in the quality of our human resources”.

Nadiem, with his capabilities and millennial spirit, looks confident and is ready to manage around 300,000 schools, 50 million students and 3.5 million teachers. However, as he said, the matter of advancing education is not limited to digitizing and applying technology into existing systems. There are constitutional and fundamental problems related to cultural realities and natural realities that must be structured into the objective and operational direction of national education. Therefore, Nadiem is ready to listen and learn.

We hope that Nadiem develops a new perspective that is more ”pragmatic” so that education provides tangible, relevant and significant uses for the lives of individuals, nation, and humanity. To be clear, our education produces good workers and good citizens and human beings.

Several agendas

Some fundamental agendas that should be reviewed and carried out by the Education and Culture Minister, first, are reforming character education. Character education should not be made into a program or burden on (several) subjects so that there will be a dichotomy among subjects.

In the National Education System Law No. 20/2003 Article 3, ”forming personality” (there is no word ”character” in this law) is an educational function. It means that the formation of ”character” is the cumulative effect of the entire educational process. There is no need for Nadiem to be bothered by the idea of character education as a separate program like so far. Just design as educational operational system in a comprehensive, effective and functional way.

Second, change the approach and method of learning to be more dialogic as mandated by the National Education System Law Article (1) and Article 40 Paragraph (2a). Dialogic learning is very important for the development of higher order thinking skills (HOTS) as the basis for character building.

With a dialogical atmosphere the students are diwongke (treated as human being), given the space to articulate their thoughts and feelings through words so as to grow the price and confidence needed in communication.

According to several classical (Plato and Aristotle) and modern (JB Watson and Ludwig Wittgenstein) theories, thinking and language have mutually reinforcing links. Dialogue and structuring expressions in language can mean sharpening and constructing the mind. ”Language is founded on the mind,” Wittgenstein said.

Third, redo the national exam (UN). The colossal and expensive UN project that has taken place so far has not only not been proven to improve quality but has actually damaged the mentality of students because in practice it has included corrupt values.

Just return the UN according to the National Education Law Articles 57 and 58. Evaluation of learning outcomes is done by the teachers, while the quality control should be done an independent institution not necessarily every year and even without involving all students.

Read more : A “Hidden” Higher 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.

Fourth, simplify the curriculum (number of subjects). For elementary school level (SD) use the introduction of mother tongue (local language). In class I to class III only one or two subjects are enough, namely language and mathematics. Religious Studies, Pancasila, Science, English, and Art are integrated as content.

In the next class several subjects, such as Religion and Pancasila, are given separately. At junior high and senior high school levels students need to study four or five subjects with an emphasis on applied mathematics and science. There needs to be a reorientation on religious and national education so that diversity and nationality become a constructive force.

Fifth, the mainstreaming of vocational education by doing (1) school restructuring, namely two years for the high school. In the third year students have been divided into academics and vocational pathways; (2) vocational schools (SMK) are aligned with community academies, and polytechnics. Specifications and diversification of the majors and the period of education/training are needed. For example, six months are enough for the majors of barbers and welders, one year for nursing caregivers; (3) revitalization of vocational pathways is also carried out by optimizing the function of vocational training centers (BLK), especially for those who drop out of school (DO) and do not continue at the SD-SMP level.

The complexity of our educational problems has exceeded the capacity of the department/ministry so to advance it, besides requiring the President\'s full attention and commitment, it also needs community support.

(Mohammad Abduhzen, Advisor Paramadina Institute for Education Reform, Paramadina University)