New Direction of Education
Every Indonesian child, like their peers in other countries, yearns for an education system based on new values.
In late 2021, UNESCO's commission for the future of education launched a report titled "Reimagining Our Futures Together".
This report states that the direction and goals of education must change. The education system is considered to have mistakenly propagated the belief that short-term convenience and privilege are more important than long-term sustainability.
The old education system overemphasized the value of individual success, economic development and national competition while sacrificing togetherness, understanding of human interdependence, and concern for others and the Earth. The new direction of education must ensure that solidarity, compassion, ethics and empathy are embedded in the design of learning activities. (UNESCO, 2021)
New challenges
To be honest, the commission’s sharp criticism of the future of education should also be targeted at our educational practices, and indeed it’s true that a number of other countries also have educational strategies based on old values. This fact needs to be recognized as part of the history of Indonesian education.
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Let's just say that the education system in the past was well suited to the challenges of the past. However, today's world is based on a whole new set of values. The togetherness of all human beings across countries and cultures is being challenged to solve various world problems. Thus, the national education system also needs to reformulate the direction of its education based on new values such as togetherness.
The decline of democracy and the weakening of nationality do not only occur in emerging countries.
Not only has the Covid-19 outbreak stopped the learning opportunities of 1.6 billion children across the world and proved the vulnerability of the education system, but the current situation in the world is also marked by the decline of democracy and increasing national divisions and violence in society. The decline of democracy and the weakening of nationality do not only occur in emerging countries.
The United States, a superpower that has always been imaged as a bastion of democracy, in 2021was categorized for the first time as a country whose democracy was in decline (International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2021). It is hard to imagine a primitive attitude such as preventing citizens from exercising their right to vote in a republic that is no longer young.
Therefore, it is not surprising that UNESCO's future commission on education concluded: the fragility of planet Earth, the decline of democracy and increasing polarization, digital technology that connects and divides, and the uncertainty of the future of employment as four major disruptions facing the world that educational institutions need to address.
If we look closely, the indications of the four intersecting disruptions have also been felt in Indonesia, so our classrooms must not be sterile from those issues either. However, how does the national education system address these four global issues?
The national education system, in general, has a number of tools, such as legislation, regulations, standards, curricula, learning outcomes and textbooks, but it also needs to carry the main message or ideals that underlie it. These main ideals or adicita will then become the lifeblood of the education system as a whole.
So, what should be the life of the Indonesian education system in this new world value system? We don't know the answer yet. The most suitable ideas for Indonesia must be sought together. However, what we know for sure is that the ideals of education must be able to become a framework to dissect the four global challenges.
Interconnection
As an initial proposal, ideas such as interconnectedness can be used as potential ideals of our national education system.
It is worth noting that the noble wisdom and beliefs of the traditional community in Indonesia are actually familiar with the message of interconnectedness in life, namely that everything in the universe is interconnected. Therefore, even though the national education system is based on interconnectedness with global issues, the national education system remains connected to its local environment.
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Acceleration of Education Technology
The national education system that carries interconnectedness as its main pillar will develop solidly based on a clear concept. Teachers can design their learning plans creatively for the quality of student learning because this education system is flexible to develop, but also provides a clear framework.
At the abstract level, the four major disruptions can be studied using an interconnected “thinking lens”, and studies have been carried out applying various disciplines and interdisciplinary knowledge. Meanwhile, at the pedagogical level, the interaction of students and teachers in the learning process will also use a framework of interconnectedness.
Not to forget, the classroom becomes a world communication laboratory with universal discourses, such as climate change and economic inequality, but also remains strongly connected to the discourse in its environment.
Consequently, the knowledge of teacher and student no longer follows the giver-receiver model but uses the model that sees knowledge as a shared proprietary and then is developed together. Relationships between knowledge that have a framework of interconnectedness will encourage the spirit of interdisciplinary. Not to forget, the classroom becomes a world communication laboratory with universal discourses, such as climate change and economic inequality, but also remains strongly connected to the discourse in its environment.
As for the learning level, students build their understanding of the concept of interconnectedness with nature. As an illustration, the Grade IX curriculum compiled by the Yukon First Nations
Curriculum Working Group (Yukon is the westernmost territory in Canada) also uses interconnectedness as the main idea of its education.
In this curriculum, activities are designed to measure the diameter of tree trunks.
From there, students estimate the amount of biomass and nutrient content of the trees around the school. Then students calculate the carbon content of each tree and the absorption of carbon dioxide. From that experience, students build an understanding of how interrelationships conduct actions on planet Earth.
At the same time, computing activities and the use of information technology are studied in a meaningful way, not just mechanistic manipulation of numbers. The main idea of interconnectedness also naturally emerges when students learn mathematical concepts, such as patterns, functions and data. Apart from that, students have been directly involved in practicing the interrelationships of the disciplines of science, technology, mathematics and awareness of the natural environment.
Meanwhile, in social sciences lessons, the idea of interconnectedness can be a lens to dissect knowledge about government and national relations. In language subjects, the idea of interconnectedness becomes a lens for dissecting sentence and paragraph structures. In the eyes of art subjects, interrelationships become the lens of thinking in order to dissect various phenomena and express them.
The interconnectedness proposed here is only one candidate as the ideal of the education system, and of course, it is very possible that there are other, better main ideas.
Thus, through this education system, students build awareness to contribute to caring for the environment and strengthen brotherhood and peace. In parallel, students continue to hone their skills in the disciplines of mathematics, science, technology and other 21st century skills in a connected manner with the same portion of time. The interconnectedness proposed here is only one candidate as the ideal of the education system, and of course, it is very possible that there are other, better main ideas.
New values
Every Indonesian child, like their peers in other countries, yearns for an education system based on new values. To realize such education in Indonesia is not at all impossible, but systematic efforts to get there must be carried out at the conceptual and technical levels that are both fundamental and detailed. The various laws, regulations and curriculums have consumed money and time but are always far from expectations.
Iwan Pranoto
Iwan Pranoto, Mathematics Lecturer at ITB
(This article was translated by Kurniawan Siswo)
