Waiting Change Means More of Education

By : Asep P. Kurnia

There is joy in the hearts of the people of Indonesia at this time. There with the change in the order of statehood, after the new order. At the very least, the joy of addressing changes in the electoral system, which gives opportunities to the people elect the president directly.

Discharge SBY (Yudhoyono) as the winner in the direct presidential elections, and was sworn in as president on October 20, 2004, seemed to give fresh air to the public. Only fresh air is of course still in anticipation. Therefore, to interpretation this fresh breeze, after seeing the results of the previous government leadership has not given the sense of significant changes to reorganize a nation that this is messy.

This expectation is, of course, reasonable because it is accepted or not education is the main base of the country's development. In addition, people's expectations towards the advancement of education, because education is often a central theme in the election campaign. For example: in the 1999 election campaign, Megawati Sukarnoputri had promised to raise teacher salaries to 500% if her party wins. And in the 2004 elections, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Chairman of the Crescent Star Party and the campaigner other party, with loud promises of free education in elementary through high school education in our country that is rich with natural resources.

But the fact how? Communities can assess the realization of this campaigner. Never vote for the losing party, the PDI-P is superior in votes in 1999 elections, even the general chairman, Megawati Sukarnoputri presidency managed to climb through the Special Session of the Assembly, was not able to prove his promise.

It is natural, because education is not as easy to fix the palms rotate, wiggle the tongue, say and chose the beautiful words that it becomes a powerful tool to capture the interest of the people to choose it. Education is not the only dish that arrived just in time for the election campaign. Education is a means to mature people in politics, a means to foster social and cultural community resilience, and the means to create a people and nation forward.

SBY campaign about education : How about SBY about education?

As the winner of the presidential election of 2004, the Yudhoyono-Kalla team success is also a lot of talk about improving the quality of education, one of its elements is a change in the system, improving the welfare of teachers, and provision of educational facilities and infrastructure.

Even more interesting, often held that the campaign by displaying an interactive dialog, so that more education hopes to touch the root of the problem. So that

Various issues related to education is getting stuck. Particularly regarding the financial burden of parents. For example, a DSP money each year to rise, the purchase of textbooks each semester, and other levies are incidental.

Where noted, various critics about educational issues have not touched on the essence of education is going on today. Community, including most of the political elite still sees education as commodity consumption that moment. Like a cigarette that can be enjoyed just a few minutes, so it is worth questioning if the price of cigarettes continues to rise.

Education is not the only commodity that can be enjoyed today, the education will provide a continuous reflection on the life of someone who is living it. Call it, a child studying in Higher Education, will give a label of pride in his family, will know and understand how to do well in their parents, in addition to benefit science gets. And the more valuable, if the child is able to actualize its competence to live comfortably in their communities. Thus, the reflection of this education will continue and bring lasting benefits for a person throughout his life.

From the example above phenomenon, it is actually to think about now is how far the curriculum competencies can be transferred and applied to the student and the student to become an optimal provision forward. So if this happens, any costs incurred as expensive today, it was nothing compared with the quality of education and the benefits obtained for his son to stock his future life.

To meet the quality demands, then some of the educational agenda is to be a chore now, need to be formulated through logical discourse. Not limited to experts and practitioners in education, but parents and the community as a consumer must be involved to address the needs of education of utmost priority. If this has happened, then any child always buy books, all books are eligible for the increased needs of competence, then it would not be a burden and the complaints of parents like that when this happens.

Developed countries like Britain, the United States, Japan, South Korean, including Malaysia now, understand that the book is the daily consumption can not be separated from daily life, especially school children as a generation. Meanwhile, our society is only a small percentage who have reading culture, and curious about the presence of new books, so get used to finance share buy books regularly, although financial thin.

Ironic, when in the context of today's society, which is generally at least been able to have a motorcycle, in the village though. But it has not been able to condition the book in their daily needs, at least for children who are in school.

So, people like the above phenomena become easy targets of campaigner to attract votes by using the momentum of the current study. Thus, the theme of the campaign Questioning education, including a successful team of SBY-Kalla, would not be expected to be the solution to improve the quality of education is realistic.