Navigating the Indonesian Education System

The Jakarta Post   |  Tue, 04/29/2008 3:49 PM  |  Center Piece

Two-year-old Sebastian has just started talking. His parents have already picked out a playgroup for him to attend, a reputable institution conveniently close to home — at a monthly price tag that tops an average driver’s salary.

Quality education has always come with a hefty price tag attached, but the price range used to be comparatively narrow. It’s no longer the case. For the yawning divide between government-run school fees versus those of their private counterparts reflects the widespread perception of a quality gap.

It used to be that the Indonesian school system was fairly simple in structure. It consisted of six years primary school, three years junior secondary and three years senior secondary, followed by university, technical or vacation schools for those who could afford it. A government-approved curriculum applied to all schools, public or private, with minor variations allowed such as the choice of religion or local language taught. The only exceptions were the international schools, which Indonesians weren’t allowed to attend anyway.

All this changed following a large scale deregulation of the education industry in 1999. In those heady times, curriculums diversified, schools proliferated. Almost overnight the industry blossomed, reveling in its new flexibility, and new opportunities to make money.

Now you can send your child to a National Plus school for bilingual English education, or maybe the kid should learn Chinese, all the better to do business with the world’s fastest growing economy. Would International Baccalaureate accreditation be better? Perhaps GCSE’s are the way to go. Then again, there are all those old-name privately-run Indonesian schools where they instill discipline the traditional way.

“It’s really confusing these days,” laments Marlina Mulyadi, a mother of one. “There are so many systems and combinations of systems, it’s hard to keep them straight.”

In the search for answers, I checked out the website of the National Education Ministry. It helpfully informs one for a start that within the Indonesian system, there are secular and religious Islamic curriculums. Within the secular system, one first attends Sekolah Dasar (elementary school), then Sekolah Menengah Pertama (junior high), and finally Sekolah Menengah Atas (high school). The religious equivalents are Madrasah Ibtidaiyah, Madrasah Tsanawiyah, and Madrasah Aliyah, which are run by the Religious Affairs Ministry.

At the third stage, students have an additional option of choosing vocational schooling instead of an academic or religious track. In addition, the government also recognizes the home schooling as a valid educational method, with the proviso that the student needs to be able to pass national equivalency examinations.

For those seeking an alternative to the Indonesia education system, a small but growing movement seeks to combine the present Indonesian curriculum with international curriculums. The schools that implement these are usually referred to as National Plus schools, and are usually taught in English and Indonesian. Targeted at the upper class and available in a limited number of locations, prices aren’t for the faint hearted. Meanwhile for those who can pay top dollar (or Euro, or yen), the once-exclusive international schools are now open to Indonesian students.

I forgot to mention that most of these choices are moot unless you have money. While in theory every Indonesian citizen is entitled to a free nine-year period of schooling, in practice fees, sanctioned and unsanctioned, have a habit of popping up along the way. Entrance fees are also hefty, and rise with the level.

One of the biggest problems is that at present, education is only half the path to a better life. Upon graduation, getting a job often depends more on social connections than your diploma or your grades. For the poor, the calculus doesn’t make sense. Why slave to pay hundreds of dollars when they’re going to become another driver or nanny upon graduation?

And for those who have the connections, well, getting ahead in life isn’t really going to be determined by their grades. It’s an equation still to be resolved.

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