Indonesia Banget #23 : Indonesian Educational System

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This month’s Indonesia Banget is a bit special. One of Indonesia banget’s regular reader, Sungin1 asked this question in one of his comment:

If it doesn’t be a hassle to you could you write a simple post about your educational system. I’m interested in different systems

As a teacher myself, it’s not a difficult question and very easy to answer

School/Education Level

Indonesia is no different to other countries in term of study level.

It started with kindergarten, we call it as Taman Kanak-Kanak (TK). At my time, kindergarten was only a place to play and have fun, however things have changed now… Kids have to study numbers and letters here because Elementary requires ability to read. I think this new system is terrible! Forcing kids to read that fast is just terrible, is like taking away their happy childhood.

Elementary is called Sekolah Dasar (SD) (translation: Basic School). I learned how to count and read in the beginning of elementary but now, you can’t enter good elementary if you can’t read. It is said that it’s for the children’s sake. What ever happen to happy childhood memory? Nowadays elementary has taught things that I found useless. In my own opinion, they should teach how to socialize better and be a good kid in this school period but instead of that they keep making the lesson harder than it already is. Sekolah Dasar has period of 6 years.

Indonesia Banget #21 : National Education Day

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Although May 2^nd will forever be L’Arc~en~Ciel Day for me…but in truth May 2^nd is National Education Day here in Indonesia

May 2^nd was chosen as National Education Day because it was the day Ki Hajar Dewantara was born, the man who worked so hard to build a good education system in Indonesia.

Ki Hadjar Dewantara (in Indonesian new spelling it becomes Ki Hajar Dewantara) was born under the name of Raden Mas Soewardi Soerjaningrat, Raden Mas was attached to him as a royal title because he was born in Jogjakarta Royal family. His royal title gave him opportunity to study as high as he wanted it. He was born in May 2, 1889…hence he was born under Dutch colonialism. During Dutch colonialism, only rich people were allowed to study.

Ki Hajar Dewantara

Soewardi Soerjaningrat studied at ELS (Europeesche Lagere School), then continued studies at Kweekschool (Teacher School) and STOVIA (Javanese Doctor’s School). He didn’t finish his study at STOVIA. He then became journalist for several newspapers. His writing was very anti-colonialism. He was also active in many political organizations. One of his writing that really hit the Dutch Government was titled “Seandainya Aku Seorang Belanda” (original title in Dutch: Als ik een Nederlander was, In English: If I were a Dutchman)