This inconsistency became especially apparent after the issuance of the Presidential Regulation (Perpres) on the Education and Culture Ministry (Kemdikbud) at the end of December.
By
Hafid Abbas
·6 minutes read
Lately, the campus community and experts and practitioners of community education and informal education have been busy discussing various policies related to the direction of community education, which are considered to be in conflict with one another.
This inconsistency became especially apparent after the issuance of the Presidential Regulation (Perpres) on the Education and Culture Ministry (Kemdikbud) at the end of December. Article 6 Paragraph c of Perpres No. 72/2019 concerning Kemdikbud, which was enacted on Oct. 24, 2019, involves the Directorate General of Early Childhood Education and Community Education.
Furthermore, Article 14 of the Perpres states that the Directorate General of Early Childhood Education and Community Education has the task of carrying out the formulation and implementation of policies in the field of early childhood education and community education. However, on Dec. 16, 2019, President Joko Widodo issued Presidential Regulation No. 82/2019, which annulled the previous regulation on the Education and Culture Ministry, which eliminated the directorate general that handles community education affairs.
Denying the historic and unrealistic
This new policy has given birth to various arguments and fundamental issues. First, this policy seems to deny a long history of educational development in this country. Long before Indonesia\'s independence, in the era of colonial rule, in the Boedi Oetomo era on May 20, 1908, for example, community education had been used as a foothold for all efforts to educate the lives of the people of the nation to free themselves from the shackles of colonialism that had been in place for centuries.
Article 3 of Boedi Oetomo\'s Statutes explicitly stated that the revival of the educational struggle was on (1) educational efforts in the broadest sense, (2) improvement of agricultural, livestock and trade skills, (3) technical and craft advancement, (4) revival of indigenous arts and traditions, (5) upholding the ideals of humanity and (6) things that could help improve the welfare of the nation.
The same awareness was found in the birth of Taman Siswa by Ki Hajar Dewantara in 1922, which developed rapidly because of its community-based philosophical foundation so that it received broad support from the leaders of the nation\'s freedom fighters to raise the dignity of, and to advance and protect the human rights of the colonized nation. Similarly, when Indonesia was independent, from the early era of independence to the period of the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla Working Cabinet of 2014 to 2019, community education affairs could always get a place in every national education policy. It is only during this current period of government that community education matters in the organizational structure of the Education and Culture Ministry are ignored.
Second, this policy seems unrealistic, does not match the real needs of the community and is inconsistent. On March 6, 2019, then vice president Jusuf Kalla at the Vice Presidential Palace launched the Strategic Agenda for Community Education throughout Indonesia focusing on 18 target groups of people who were judged to have high levels of social and economic vulnerability, such as poor farmers, indigenous peoples, refugees, migrant workers and children with poor nutrition who were suffering from stunting.
Of that total there were 128 real strategic agenda items that are needed by the community and need to be implemented urgently in various Tri Dharma activities of higher education to liberate the community from its backwardness.
In front of about 300 participants of the Congress of the Indonesian Community Education Association (Apenmasi) consisting of leaders of state universities (PTN), private universities (PTS), lecturers, researchers, managers of Community Learning Centers (PKBM) and practitioners of community education (Penmas) throughout the country, the vice president conveyed the urgency of community education to address the issues of poverty, unemployment, social inequality and underdevelopment, including poor nutrition of children, migrant workers, school dropouts and so on.
The vice president encouraged PTN, PTS and all related parties to form vocational villages in accordance with the economic corridors and local support resources and to develop various empowerment programs for disadvantaged people in accordance with the mission of education for all. With the enactment of the above Perpres, more inconsistency is clearly seen in the direction of community education than in the previous one.
Not oriented to the future
Third, this policy does not seem to be oriented toward the interests of the future. The facts show that the current level of social inequality in the country is still very high. As reported by Global Wealth Databooks (2016), Indonesia ranks among the worst four in the world after Russia, India and Thailand. From an educational perspective, this gap is actually caused by a knowledge gap among the community members, both in cities and villages, in Java or outside Java.
From an educational point of view, this knowledge and skill gap is considered far more dangerous than the lack of central-regional financial balance because education is the only "great equalizer" desired by the disadvantaged community groups.
As a solution, in the future, there must be increasingly strengthened educational institutions that are rooted in the community, such as PKBM, boarding schools, courses, business pursuits and interest groups, which will strengthen and complement each other with school education institutions as agents of change that will improve the quality of people\'s lives.
Partial and isolated
Fourth, this policy looks very partial, isolated from the interests of the community as a whole. This policy reduces the interests of community education to being only matters of courses, literacy and equality on a school-based basis (Article 15). This is very different from the mandate of UNESCO (1995) whose broader spectrum includes literacy, equality, improving quality of life, generating income and developing interests, talents and future-oriented programs. As a member of the United Nations, education policies adopted by Indonesia should be in line with international agreements.
Finally, the concern over the loss of community education in the Education and Culture Ministry\'s organizational structure reminds me of similar concerns expressed by Paulo Freire six decades ago in his country when he was still working as a lecturer and the chairperson of the Department of Community and Cultural Education at Recife University, Brazil. In the early 1960s, Paulo highlighted that the source of Brazil\'s social inequality, poverty and underdevelopment was the mistake of managing a dry education with fundamental awareness and being isolated from the real life of people. Paulo actually hoped that there would never again be a leader who was not serious about education, handing over education affairs to people who do not understand education, because education will determine the life and death of a nation or a civilization.
Hafid Abbas, Professor, Education Science School of Jakarta State University, International Consultant of UNESCO for the Asia-Pacific 1992-1995