Indonesian Education

Indonesian Education: Teachers, Schools, and Central Authority, the first published study of life inside Indonesian schools, explores the role that classroom teachers' behavior and locates their actions within the broader cultures of education and government in Indonesia.

Indonesian Education: Teachers, Schools, and Central Authority, the first published study of life inside Indonesian schools, explores the role that classroom teachers' behavior and locates their actions within the broader cultures of education and government in Indonesia.

This book examines the effects of education exchange on educational sovereignty in Indonesia. Since independence, Indonesia has increasingly relied on the education programs of foreign providers. The author draws from critical education, dependency, and transnational and interdependence theories to highlight the defining features of educational sovereignty and demonstrate the role of state and non-state actors in its maintenance.

In Indonesia, as elsewhere in Asia, education will inevitably play a key role in the national development experience as the twenty-first century unfolds. Not much international attention is paid to how the education sector is faring in Indonesia, but that is not because nothing is happening. The past decade has seen major changes in the structure of the education system and in the schooling trajectories of Indonesian children and adolescents. The administration of primary and secondary education has been decentralized to the regions. A new paradigm of school-based management has been introduced. Public spending on education has finally reached one-fifth of total government spending, as required by law. But although enrolment rates at all levels continue to increase, the quality of education remains low and has not improved, and the tertiary sector continues to experience problems of autonomy and unsatisfactory performance.

The book focuses on the impact of the 1997-99 economic crisis on human development in Indonesia, especially in 1998, its worst year. Based on the definition used by the UNDP, human development is analysed as covering human capital (education and health) and purchasing power. In this book, the concept of human capital is broadened to include freedom from fear, health, education, and migration. The first part of the book discusses the economic situation in Indonesia. The second elaborates on what happened to human capital during the crisis and the third part examines its effects on purchasing power. Because human development does not occur in a vacuum, the fourth part discusses some emerging issues in Indonesia. The book concludes with some thoughts on people-centred development, which may contribute to more sustainable development than the development concept that simply pursues high economic growth. With this people-centred development, growth rates of about 3 to 4 per cent are adequate, as long as Indonesia achieves success in human development.

This report provides guidance on how Indonesia can consolidate gains in access to basic education and develop an education system that will support an economy in transition towards high-income status.