Is Indonesia in a state of moral emergency?
What do we expect from our future generations? The promises of our founding fathers were clearly written in the fourth paragraph of the 1945 Constitution's Preamble: "…to promote the intellectual life of the nation, and to contribute to implementing order in a world founded upon independence, eternal peace and social justice..."
The burning questions now are as follows: Are we determined to meet these promises? And are we serious about preparing Indonesia's future generations to excel in the global arena?
During this year's national exam controversy, the screening of the documentary Temani Aku Bunda (Accompany Me, Mother) by the Kampung Halaman Foundation, may find its relevance again.
The movie depicts a vivid picture of Abrar, a child who unfortunately became a victim of his morals. The story started two years ago, when Abrar, then a student at Jakarta-based Pesanggrahan Petang 06 Elementary School, was told by his teacher to share his answer sheet with his classmates during the 2011 national exam.
However, Abrar's honesty in revealing this scandal got him into trouble — he had to move to another school due to the social pressure he and his mother experienced in the school and neighborhood.
There have not been many "name and shame" actions in relation to those educators who encourage students to cheat, while there have been more and more cases of educator-led cheating practices in the current national exam.
Recently, a teacher based in Jepara, Central Java, described it clearly on her blog. She witnessed how the district education authority (school inspectors) did nothing to stop a teacher distributing exam answer keys to students.
The 2013 national exam's teacher integrity pact, which was expected to prevent educators from engaging in such cheating practices, is more proof that in Indonesia, rules are made to be broken by those who should be fighting to preserve those very same rules.
The educators are failing to uphold the standards of the moral values that Indonesian children must carry with them for their futures.
Are we in the state of moral emergency? I do not want to further discuss those lawmakers who are involved in corruption across the country.
Neither is this the time to talk about how perverted are those fellow countrymen who applauded the vigilante actions of the soldiers who killed detainees in Cebongan Penitentiary in Yogyakarta.
The controversy surrounding the 2013 national exam has shown that we need to focus more on education, which is at the heart of the nation's development.
Studies have shown that the most important factor in determining children's future success is the quality of their teachers.
We need to ensure our children's education is in the hands of qualified teachers, those who are academically strong and have the passion to make a difference to the lives of younger people.
The Indonesian government has set a groundbreaking standard to improve the quality of teaching through the 2005 Teachers Law.
This law has been applauded for its efforts to upgrade the skills of teachers and set the minimum academic requirement for them, which in the end will improve the quality of education.
The certification program (with a total cost of around Rp 250 trillion [US$25.75 billion]) tries to encourage teachers to improve themselves.
However, the competency assessment conducted for certified teachers in August 2012 resulted in an average score of 44 (from a maximum score of 100) while they scored low in mathematics and science-related subjects.
The Teacher Competence Assessment (better known as Uji Kompetensi Guru/UKG 2012) shows that academically-strong teaching for Indonesian children has yet to become a reality.
Moreover, some recent studies conducted by researchers at the Jakarta-based SMERU Institute revealed that teacher absenteeism still posed a big problem. With the Indonesian teacher absenteeism rate at around 15 percent (and with 26 percent of those absentees conducting work unrelated to teaching, arriving late or not having a clear reason), the learning environment for students is far from ideal.
These children are not just facing academically struggling teachers that may not provide satisfactory explanations to their questions, but also teachers that lack the passion to teach.
Facing such teachers, as well as the burden students must bear to ensure they pass their national exam, may contribute to educator-led cheating in the classroom. This must change and the government must act as soon as possible.
We are in a state of emergency, structurally and morally. The students, victims of corruption that has robbed them of the infrastructure they need to study normally, need to be protected from those teachers who do not lay a strong foundation for following moral principles.
How can we deal with the situation? The education authorities must keep on trying to attract the best graduates to become teachers.
They also need to ensure whether potential teachers have the necessary skills and passion to teach. If we expect better future generations to have good moral values, the government must get rid of educators with bad moral values.
There should be no excuses: those certified teachers or education authorities who encourage students to cheat should be permanently banned from the classrooms and educational institutions.
Let's imagine Indonesia 20 or 30 years from now. It would be perfect if all national public figures shared the same high standard of values to combat corruption and social injustice.
Perhaps some of them would recall their own education, and thank those who laid the foundations for honesty in them. Would not that be sweet?
The writer, who earned a postgraduate degree from University College London (UCL), is a sustainable development practitioner and is currently Education UK Alumni Ambassador 2012-2013.
The burning questions now are as follows: Are we determined to meet these promises? And are we serious about preparing Indonesia's future generations to excel in the global arena?
During this year's national exam controversy, the screening of the documentary Temani Aku Bunda (Accompany Me, Mother) by the Kampung Halaman Foundation, may find its relevance again.
The movie depicts a vivid picture of Abrar, a child who unfortunately became a victim of his morals. The story started two years ago, when Abrar, then a student at Jakarta-based Pesanggrahan Petang 06 Elementary School, was told by his teacher to share his answer sheet with his classmates during the 2011 national exam.
However, Abrar's honesty in revealing this scandal got him into trouble — he had to move to another school due to the social pressure he and his mother experienced in the school and neighborhood.
There have not been many "name and shame" actions in relation to those educators who encourage students to cheat, while there have been more and more cases of educator-led cheating practices in the current national exam.
Recently, a teacher based in Jepara, Central Java, described it clearly on her blog. She witnessed how the district education authority (school inspectors) did nothing to stop a teacher distributing exam answer keys to students.
The 2013 national exam's teacher integrity pact, which was expected to prevent educators from engaging in such cheating practices, is more proof that in Indonesia, rules are made to be broken by those who should be fighting to preserve those very same rules.
The educators are failing to uphold the standards of the moral values that Indonesian children must carry with them for their futures.
Are we in the state of moral emergency? I do not want to further discuss those lawmakers who are involved in corruption across the country.
Neither is this the time to talk about how perverted are those fellow countrymen who applauded the vigilante actions of the soldiers who killed detainees in Cebongan Penitentiary in Yogyakarta.
The controversy surrounding the 2013 national exam has shown that we need to focus more on education, which is at the heart of the nation's development.
Studies have shown that the most important factor in determining children's future success is the quality of their teachers.
We need to ensure our children's education is in the hands of qualified teachers, those who are academically strong and have the passion to make a difference to the lives of younger people.
The Indonesian government has set a groundbreaking standard to improve the quality of teaching through the 2005 Teachers Law.
This law has been applauded for its efforts to upgrade the skills of teachers and set the minimum academic requirement for them, which in the end will improve the quality of education.
The certification program (with a total cost of around Rp 250 trillion [US$25.75 billion]) tries to encourage teachers to improve themselves.
However, the competency assessment conducted for certified teachers in August 2012 resulted in an average score of 44 (from a maximum score of 100) while they scored low in mathematics and science-related subjects.
The Teacher Competence Assessment (better known as Uji Kompetensi Guru/UKG 2012) shows that academically-strong teaching for Indonesian children has yet to become a reality.
Moreover, some recent studies conducted by researchers at the Jakarta-based SMERU Institute revealed that teacher absenteeism still posed a big problem. With the Indonesian teacher absenteeism rate at around 15 percent (and with 26 percent of those absentees conducting work unrelated to teaching, arriving late or not having a clear reason), the learning environment for students is far from ideal.
These children are not just facing academically struggling teachers that may not provide satisfactory explanations to their questions, but also teachers that lack the passion to teach.
Facing such teachers, as well as the burden students must bear to ensure they pass their national exam, may contribute to educator-led cheating in the classroom. This must change and the government must act as soon as possible.
We are in a state of emergency, structurally and morally. The students, victims of corruption that has robbed them of the infrastructure they need to study normally, need to be protected from those teachers who do not lay a strong foundation for following moral principles.
How can we deal with the situation? The education authorities must keep on trying to attract the best graduates to become teachers.
They also need to ensure whether potential teachers have the necessary skills and passion to teach. If we expect better future generations to have good moral values, the government must get rid of educators with bad moral values.
There should be no excuses: those certified teachers or education authorities who encourage students to cheat should be permanently banned from the classrooms and educational institutions.
Let's imagine Indonesia 20 or 30 years from now. It would be perfect if all national public figures shared the same high standard of values to combat corruption and social injustice.
Perhaps some of them would recall their own education, and thank those who laid the foundations for honesty in them. Would not that be sweet?
The writer, who earned a postgraduate degree from University College London (UCL), is a sustainable development practitioner and is currently Education UK Alumni Ambassador 2012-2013.
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