Indonesia’s education system; 1 of the worst in the world

Indonesia’s education system; 1 of the worst in the world

Indonesia’s education system is one of the worst in the world according to a recent report. So why did it rank so poorly? The answer, as is often the case with developing countries still finding their feet as a democracy, appears to be corruption. Even more tragic. The funding is there but it ends up in the pockets of corrupt civil servants and not in classrooms. East 101′s recent investigation highlighted some shocking facts about the Indonesian education system including: Only a third of Indonesian students – in a country where 57 million attend school – complete basic schooling. Education experts say less than half of the country’s teachers possess even the minimum qualifications to teach properly and teacher absenteeism hovers at around 20 percent. Many teachers in the public school system work outside of the classroom to improve their incomes. Indonesian Corruption Watch claims there are very few schools in the country that are clean of graft, bribery or embezzlement – with 40 percent of their budget siphoned off before it reaches the classroom. One of the Indonesian government’s responses to these findings has been to restructure the Indonesian curriculum, including postponing teaching science, geography and ENGLISH until students attend secondary school. For a nation economically prospering, geographically located in a region that looks set to be at the forefront of world economics and politics it seems a bemusing choice to make. Moreover the Indonesian education system does not encourage independent, creative thought but focusses more on learning by rote. Discipline is strict, commendation little and many students are expelled for what in the western world we would consider slight misbehaviour.