You’ve got to have standards

Especially if you're spending the money of Indonesia's rakyat (citizenry) on full colour quarter page ads in the Jakarta Post.

Wikipedia has this to say about Bank Rakyat Indonesia (tr. People's Bank of Indonesia).

It is one of the larger banks in Indonesia. It specialises in small scale and microfinance style borrowing from and lending to its approximately 30 million retail clients through its over 4,000 branches, units and rural service posts. It also has a comparatively small, but growing, corporate business.

It is currently 70% government owned operating company (Persero) and has been government owned for the entire period since the war of independence (1945 to 1949) to November 2003, when 30% of its shares were sold through an IPO.

And this is what BRI has to say to its "small scale and microfinance style" clientele.

Fly Anywhere with your Reserved Private Aircraft

Proudly present a new and exclusive reservation service to 
fly with private aircraft to any destination you would like to go.

Enjoy convenience at it's truly means as our special customer

Term & Condition apply

BRI Prioritas
Untuk Pribadi Terpilih (tr.For 'Choice' People)

I'm going to ignore the appalling English and not going to wonder about the singular term and condition. However, it is worth noting that of late society seems unable to focus on what really matters.
For example, note the use of the word bule in this headline: Selundupkan Biji Ganja Bule Jerman Dibekuk (White German Marijuana Smuggler Arrested)

As a regular reader (Hi Del) commented, "What if the guy was black? How would they get round that? Interesting that you're a "bule" first and a "orang" second."

This surface attention is widespread.

A number of schools have taken to labelling themselves as "International", which is strange as they are extremely unlikely to have expatriate students or even come close to what they advertise.

A number of complaints in the media, such as those I highlighted here seem to have forced the government to take action. As per usual, they're missing the point and leaving many educators confused.

A 2009 education ministerial, which will come into force on March 30, 2010, stipulates that the curricula applied at international schools must cover the teaching of religion, civics and the Indonesian language. The teaching of these three subjects must be conducted in Indonesian.

There are a number of International Schools in Indonesia which were established during the Suharto era to provide schooling for the children of peripatetic expatriate workers, generally 'consultants' and managerial staff working for multi-national companies, such as oil companies. Parallel schools in other countries offered a continuity of education for these children.

Leading up to, and especially following the Asian Economic Meltdown of the late 90s (and known as krismon here) jobs were expected to be 'Indonesianised' through a "transfer of technology". Naturally, the school rolls tumbled. Because they were expected to be financially self-sufficient, many schools began to accept the children of better off Indonesians who would otherwise be sending their children to study in Singapore.

Mistakes were certainly made. After all, the Jakarta International School (JIS) should not have accepted the young son of Theo Toemion, the then chairman of Indonesia's Investment Coordinating Board, who assaulted the 14 year old referee of his 7 year old son's basketball match and executives from U.S. companies including ExxonMobil, Nike, Unocal and ConocoPhillips.

Theo was subsequently jailed for massive corruption. Presumably some of his ill-gotten gains found their way into the coffers of JIS.

And such is the amount of such spare cash floating around that a number of private schools, including Penabur, which charge high fees for teaching to the test, decided to cream off some of it by opening so-called 'international classes' in their regular schools.

A few white faces, never mind the qualifications - even naval chefs will do - and a few foreign course books, mainly from Singapore, and they had ready made glossy advertising.

But it's all gone wrong. There are few schools which offer - and I'm quoting from a recent job ad - active, student-centered learning and facilitate active exploration,discovery and interaction with people and materials. That this ad was placed by a school which is apparently Leading the Human Development Paradigm does not necessarily mean anything other than that they hiding behind buzzwords with little sense of what they mean. After all, they have a very high staff turnover.

Every time there is a new Minister of Education we hear tell of a new curriculum. New partnerships are formed with companies which rebuild a few rural schools in the name of corporate social responsibility, and other minor tinkerings take place, yet aesthetics have yet to take over from bean counting.

A recent editorial in the Jakarta Post closed with these remarks.

It is the task of all elements in this country to improve the quality of our education, which ranks low even among Asian countries. Therefore, we appreciate the number of corporations that run schools, including those with international standards.

However, it is also unwise for the government to push certain schools, including state ones, to open the international standards of services in the absence of proper educational infrastructure and teaching staff who meet the requirements set for such schools. Besides, we need all categories of schools to serve society’s various demands.

I only half agree with these fine sentiments because they don't go far enough. It is my contention that if Indonesia, by which I mean all sectors of society concerned with schools and the nature of education, and not merely with upgrading the nation's schooling to an 'international' level, should establish an independent commission. This would have the remit to establish curricula for schools which take into account the multi-cultural distinctiveness of the country, the disparity between the regions in terms of economic resources, and the multiple-intelligences of students.

The commission should also oversee the establishment of a "proper educational infrastructure" including an overhaul of teacher training so that all teachers (including expatriates) are suitably qualified and are given regular professional back up and subject updates.

The Department of Education, whilst continuing to administrate, would also need 'supervision' to ensure that funds are not 'mislaid' and that targets are met. Above all, procedures and priorities should not be subject to whim of political (or business) appointees who invariably have short-term goals.

This will all inevitably take longer than a government's term of office, but a dynamic country needs people with vision.

It's a myopic malaise which has resulted in the current concern over the educational standards which ill-serve the rakyat.

They also don't need crap ads offering a private plane ride.

National Exams are A-U-D-F-C-K-E-G

This week, six million grade 12 senior high school students have been undergoing the unnecessary yet ritual torture of 'graduation' tests.

Our Kid is at home today, as are most grades 7 and 8 junior high school students. He'll be at home all next week as well because grade 9s have to go through the same robotic hell, using a 2B pencil to fill in little circles which are scanned by computer.

Unnecessary? Of course they are because the only teaching of 'relevance' these students receive in the preceding months is geared to answering the test questions, many of which are, as I've often noted, badly formulated with possible multiple correct answers or none at all.

The following headlines gleaned from the Jakarta Post tell the tale.

Tuesday 23 March
- Despite 'leaks', first day of national exams goes smoothly.
- Leaks, problems mar national final exam

Wednesday 24 March
- National exams still problematic*

Thursday 25 March
- Schools urged to have post-exam cooldown period
(for students suffering stress.)

Friday 26 March
- Students from across the country to take UGM tests.

Yogya's University of Gadjah Mada will hold entrance exams on Sunday, thus demonstrating that the national exams are of no value in determining who goes on to further education.

*The same problems crop up every year. These include misdirected packages of exam papers, sets of answers being sold, answers being sent by text message, teachers changing students' answer sheets, and students unable to take test due to sickness or pregnancy  and uncertain whether they can take them at a later date. .

Fellow blogger, Harry Nizam, has suggested that my posts are rarely positive but, hey, here's a positive suggestion for the cooling down period.

Let them play games and Countdown, a popular TV game show which tests vocabulary and maths, can be easily adapted for classroom use.

This is a screengrab from Tuesday's show.