The Implementation of Nine-Year Compulsory Basic Education

The development of a country depends on several things, one of which is human resources. It is an important thing because it influences the national development. The quality of human resources depends on the system of education which is implemented in that country. Because of that, the government of Indonesia gives all Indonesians the right to obtain the education to improve the national development. Moreover, it has the policy of the nine-year compulsory basic education in order to improve the quality of education in this country. Indra Djati Sidi, Ph.D. and Hamid Muhammad, DEd say, “The 9-year basic education program is one of the government’s efforts to create the critical mass. The program is implemented to build the Indonesian nation with, at least, basic knowledge, and skills. This basic competence should enable graduates to either continue their studying or start earning living in a society.” Moreover, the government itself has a law which regulates the education in Indonesia. According to the National Education Law No. 2/1989 and the Government Regulation No. 28/1990, “Basic education is a general education program with duration of nine years—six years of primary education and three years of junior secondary education. The nine-year Compulsory Basic Education Program attempts to provide an education for every Indonesian in the 7 to 15 age group.” Furthermore, the government has given 20% of national budget for education. Besides, there is a program of teacher quality certification to improve the quality of education. The basic education has been implemented in Indonesia since 2003 until these days. Nevertheless, we know until nowadays, not all the children in Indonesia who are in those ages obtain the basic education although it has been implemented for several years and the government has made some efforts to make it success. It means that there is a gap between the government regulation and the fact which happens in the society. There are many causes why the implementation has not succeeded yet. That is why I would like to discuss those causes in this essay.

The first thing I want to discuss is about several factors which influence the success of the implementation of basic education. Those factors are economic factor, social factor, and demographic factor. Let us see the first factor which is economic. In most aspects, economy becomes the important thing in people’s life. In this case, the thing related to economic which support children gain the education is household income. Based on Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities 2009, “In West Lombok, economic factors have a significant effect on children’s years of schooling, but the father’s occupation has a greater effect than the mother’s does. This is probably related to decision-making in the household, which is determined more by the father (who in general has a role as head of household).” West Lombok is only one of the regions in Indonesia which determine that household income affect in obtaining education for the children. The children whose parents have proper jobs and regular income can easily get better education. Nevertheless, the amount of the parents who are jobless or having irregular income in this country is not small. Furthermore, education is not cheap at all. There are many things should be bought or paid to fulfill students’ need for education. Although most of children get the aid from the government, still, many of them cannot finish the school because there are other factors beside that. Thus, the children who are not lucky only have a dream to go to school gaining knowledge without making it come true.

The second thing which affects the success of the implementation of basic education is the social factor. The social factor I would like to discuss here is the members of a household. There is relation between the social factor and the ability of the children to obtain the education. The education of the members of a household really affects the way they bring up the children and encourage them to obtain the education. For example, “in Solok, the education of the parents has significant positive effects on the length of children’s education. The higher the education attainments of the father and mother in a household, the higher will be the education level of the children in such households.” (Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities, 2009) Conversely, the family who has lower education will weakly encourage the children to get better education. Most of them who usually live in remote areas are old-fashion who thinks traditionally that education is not important in somebody’s life. Moreover, based on http://www.google.co.id/url?sa=t&source=, “many parents believe formal education is irrelevant to earning a living, and would rather have their children help them out on their farms or in other work. Thus, the children who get less support from the members of household will hardly get education.”

The third factor is the cultural factor. We cannot deny that there are huge amounts of cultures in Indonesia. Each region has its own culture which is practiced by the society. In some regions, there is a culture which related to gender stereotype. The people who live an area with that particular culture believe that there are certain things that the girls or the boys should or should not do something, one of which is the prohibition of obtaining the education for women or for men as well. Moreover, in some areas, some of them are required girls to do early marriage. That kind of culture absolutely affects the success of the implementation of basic education. For example, In Indramayu, West Java, the girls should do early marriage as the regulation of the culture. Indeed, this rule affects the girls’ access to and participation in education. The other example is based on Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities,”the boys in Solok, West Lombok, have fewer years of schooling than the girls do. A cultural factor that can explain this phenomenon is that the traditional role of men is as ‘family workers’. At home, the men work on harto pusako in the form of lands owned by women.”

Beside those three factors, the facilities and opportunities also influence the success of the implementation of basic education. The facilities and opportunities I am going to deal are about the area and the infrastructure including buildings of the schools and the teachers. Those three things are related to each other. Let us first discuss about the area. It is the main point that determines whether the basic education can be implemented successfully or not. As we know that Indonesia is an archipelago country which has around 17000 islands. There are several amounts of big islands and small islands as well. However, Indonesians do not spread evenly in those islands. Most of them live in developed areas because they get more facilities there and the government just builds the infrastructures completely in some areas of Indonesia which are developed. Thus, people who live in remote area lack of facilities. The impact of the imbalance affects the children to finish the basic education. The children who live in developed area can easily choose the school they want to study because there are many schools which can be the consideration. If they are refused in a school, they can find other schools which can admit them as the students.

On the other hand, there is only a school in most of remote areas in Indonesia or no school at all in several areas. Thus, the children there do not have the chance to choose the school. That is not the big problem. The real point is that the distance between the only school and their houses is so far. They should walk for long distance to reach their school. Besides, the road is not easy to be passed. Most of them should pass the forest or the river to reach their school. Because of that difficulty, most of children in remote areas make it as the reason why they do not finish the basic education. For example, in one of the article of Kompas by Yulvianus Harjono on November 26^th, 2010 says that the lack of education and the accessibility are the crucial problems of the society in the Kepulauan Pagai, one of the remote spots in Mentawai.  Most of the children in that area get the education in elementary school only. Besides, there are only some junior high schools in hundreds of thousand lands in Kepulauan Mentawai. The worst thing is most of that area are still in form of jungles.

Now, I am going to deal with the facilities of the schools. The area where schools are built determines the quality of the facilities in that school. We can see in the reality that the schools in the developed area have proper buildings and complete facilities such as several kinds of laboratory; science laboratory, language laboratory, and computer library. Moreover, there are also the libraries which the students can find many kinds of books. Thus, the students in those schools can study comfortably. On the other hand, in remote areas, the condition of the buildings of the school is poor. There are some buildings which nearly collapse. Moreover, the schools do not have the complete facilities which support the teaching and learning process. Based on http://www.google.co.id/url?sa=t&source=, “The poor quality of school buildings and facilities is another factor that hinders children achieving their potential in school. Many schools are dilapidated and lack proper sanitary facilities, making them dangerous for both teachers and children and creating a high risk of contracting infections.”

The next things which determine the success of the implementation of basic education is the teaching method given by the teachers. In the developed area, most of the teachers are competent and the students have advance way of thinking. They do not have such a problem in teaching and learning process. The teachers and the students can involve on it. Thus, basic education can be success in that area. Conversely, again, the problem is in the remote areas. Most of children in that area still think simply. While the teachers who are demanded by the government to implement the same curriculum as in developed area, give them the pressure in order to they can success in study. They sometimes do have time to consider the needs of slower learners.  However, many students do not like that method and feel anxious attending the school. They prefer to stay at home rather than go to school.

Based on all the explanation above, we can conclude that the implementation of the compulsory of nine-year basic education in Indonesia has not succeeded yet. In spite of the fact that the government has made several programs to overcome it, such as giving 20% national budget for education, teacher quality certification, etc, still, there is a gap between the government plan and the reality which can be seen. There are several things which cause the gap. The first cause is different factors between the developed area and the remote area such as economic, social, and culture. The second cause remains the different facilities and the opportunities which the children get between the developed area and the remote area. The differences occur because there is the imbalance portion between the developed area and the remote area. The government gives the more attention on the developed area. On the other hand, the government has not had maximum efforts to overcome the education problems in remote area. Thus, it is recommended for the government of Indonesia to minimize the gap by applying new policies and efforts in order that the compulsory of nine-year basic education can be implemented successfully.

 Mega Astya