Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

specific positions. More than 20% of its budget is
spent on the education sector i.e. sending their younger
generation to different countries such as Japan, Australia,
Germany, USA, England, and also Indonesia.
The result of this program is human capital to undertake
different projects related to technological development.
The government in cooperation with different countries
face global challenges through building the high
technology area, especially in the era of information
technology. Thus the concept of Multi Media Super
Corridor takes its place; the government invests more
in educational sectors, besides the ICT infrastructure.
In relation to child development in the education
sector, as an example, the government by the year
2000 allocated more than 17 billion RM (Malaysian
Ringgit) for educational development. And 43% of the
Ministry of Education budget was spent for primary and
secondary education. This example shows how serious
the government in developing their children, especially
to face future challenges. Technology is introduced to
children from primary school. The government is very
serious in increasing technological literacy and reducing
technological blindness. The concept of “Smart School”
has taken place.
Related to the “Smart School” concept, the government
not only support the curriculum, method of teaching,
and method of making evaluation, but it also supports
the welfare condition of teachers. It is in contrast with
the policy developed by the Indonesian government.
Even after 32 years of the New Order era and five years
of the Reformation government, the welfare condition
of teachers has not changed significantly. As an example,
a new teacher in Malaysia has an income of around
RM2,000 (around Rp5,400,000), for experienced
teacher or head of school their income is more than
RM9,000 (around Rp24,300,000). In comparison, the
salary for head of primary or secondary school or even
full professor in a respected university in Indonesia is
less than Rp5,400,000.
Besides their salaries, the Malaysian government also
gives many incentives such as credit for housing and cars
with low rate for teachers after several years of service.
The social status of a Malaysian teacher is relatively
high. Common people usually respect the teaching
profession. It is a little bit different with teachers in
Indonesia, where they are sometimes called as pahlawan
tanpa tanda jasa [hero without reward]. The Indonesian
government tends to put intrinsic reward rather than
extrinsic reward—that sometimes teachers can not
concentrate thoroughly in his/her subjects or in helping
THE EMPOWERING THE POOR AND VULNERABLE
their students.
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From this condition, the impact is not only to the
social status of teachers but also to the conditions of
the students. Only few schools in Indonesia have put
emphasis on technological development.
LESSON LEARNED FROM CHILD HEALTH
AND EDUCATION SYSTEM IN JAPAN AND
MALAYSIA
There are several lessons learned that can be drawn,
i.e.:
1. It is important to see education as a pattern of
behaviour rather than education as a pattern for
behaviour. As a pattern of behaviour, education
becomes a way of life (which work internally)
and not only lips services, and it can be seen in
their developing a strategy, allocating budget
and implementing the programs. This is what is
happening in relation to child education strategy
in Japan and Malaysia. Indonesian education
policy is sometimes a “lipstick” to make the
policy look nicer and sophisticated. In reality,
the strategy is far from what is written. In some
cases, the child education strategy is treated as
political asset which can boost their roles during
national or local election. The effect does not
significantly boost the child education sector but
more in advancing the popularity of individuals
or groups.
As an example, even though there are programs
in Indonesia that are free of charge such as the
obligatory primary and secondary schools for about
nine years, the budget allocation is very limited.
Thus, there are still many children who cannot go
to school. Still, people hear many politicians and
local and national government elites say that they
are concerned with child education issues.
Table 2: Comparison of Public Expenditure on
Education in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Indicators Indonesia (2000- Malaysia
2002) (2000-2002)
Public Expenditure on
Education (as % of total
government expenditures)
9.0 20.3
Public Expenditure on
Education (% of GDP)
1.2 8.1
Source: Human Development Report 2005.
Table 2 shows that realization of public spending
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows