During the campaign time, the gubernatorial candidates in the recent Jakarta Regional election vow should they are elected they will turn the quality of education in Jakarta into the best one, equivalent to education quality in big cities like New York, Paris, London, or Tokyo. If this ambition comes true, evidently the capital of Indonesia will become home to learners not only from surroundings but also from abroad.
Our question is whether this dream is straightforward to achieve or difficult. To provide answer and analyze we should understand the original cause of the educational problems in Jakarta especially and Indonesia in general.
After having dug a little deeper, two kinds of problems are identified. The first category is such a situation where distribution and expansions of care and education have not reached all young children. In its turn, they became the source of:
a) Lack of awareness among parents and the community on the importance of early childhood care and education which result in lack of parents’ attention to their children in relation to obtaining proper care and education.
b) Inadequate economic condition to enable parents to finance their children’s care and education.
c) Limited availability of early childhood care and education institutions, both in number and distribution, particularly in rural or remote areas.
d) Lack of utilization of the existing public facilities and infrastructures for the development of early childhood care and education services.
e) Most of the existing education services are concentrated on children aged 4-6 years rather than for children aged 0-4 years.
f) Lack of funding support from the government, both central and local administrations.
The second is low quality of early childhood care and education services and below standard. These conditions are caused by:
a) The number and quality of educator, counselor and program managers for early childhood care and services are still below quantity and quality requirements.
b) Number and quality of institutions providing early childhood care and education services are still below quantity and quality requirements.
c) Limited availability of facilities and infrastructures owned by early childhood care and education institutions.
d) Not all of the curriculum or programs for learning-teaching activities are oriented to the needs for learning.
e) There is no policy that guarantees good programs that are integrated for early childhood care and education (education, care, health and nutrition). Programs are still sectored in nature.
f) Lack of funding support from central and local governments.
The temporary conclusion is that the ambition to heighten education quality in Jakarta is not easy to achieve unless the original cause of the problem is discovered. I have momentary way out. Given that those two categories of the problem above are affected by government incompetence, it is wise to urge citizen or group of societies to participate in the education establishment. In Jakarta, there are a lot of alternative schools. One of them is Sekolah Alam Ciganjur located in southern Jakarta. What is different this school from other private school in general is that the Sekolah Alam applies concept of community-based school. According to the concept, parents are required to contribute to the teaching and learning activities based on their respective ability and competence. I my self have sent my two children ---- Regina Azizah and Gorgias Hafizullah, 7.5 and 5.5 years old respectively----to Sekolah Alam Ciganjur. I can compare my children’s superiority to their friends who are taught in the schools run by the Depdiknas.
To get to the bottom of educational problems in Jakarta in especially in Indonesia in general the authority must dig a little deeper to reach the roots.
