Special Need Students: The Lower Ranked Citizens in Indonesia?

Khairil Azhar, 19 July 2009

Several weeks ago, some of my colleagues in charges of overseeing the national exams classes and the aide-teachers assisting the special need students were furious. They talked about how the problems for the special needs are made the same as the normal ones. They were becoming more furious when the school inspector easily commented that the difficulty coming up as the risks of running an inclusive school, when contrarily on the days not filled with national exams atmosphere, we enjoy a more relaxing conversation and seems to give mutual symbiosis advantages.

On the Autism Day, 8 April 2009, it was released that the prevalence of children with special needs has reached 10 of 100 children. It means that 10 percent of the children population consists of the children with the special needs and they demand special care, parenting and schooling (okezone.com - 4/27/2009). In the national scale, there have been 1,5 million children aged 6-15 years that only 52,000 of them who have already attended special schools (Harian Seputar Indonesia, 3/5/07).

Following the above facts, I have just read an editorial telling how the special need students are also facing some obstacles in getting their right of proper education in America (Washington Post, 29 April). There, in a country labeled itself as the best democratic one, the political figures are half-hearted of struggling the right of proper education for some of their citizens. They are not sure yet whether to finance the special need students education or leaving some of them (who can not afford the suitable private school) getting the same standards of education as the normal ones in the public schools.

Since this was the first time I work for an inclusive school, two years ago I visited the website of the National Education Department which provides the services for inclusive school needs. It was almost empty! Directly, after getting the same experiences several times with the governmental official websites, I gave up. Luckily I can read English sources. Hundreds of NGOs as well as other foreign governmental websites provide almost everything of what I need. And all of the materials are free.

It is only the tip of an iceberg however, even though a very little of it has been dismantled. Hundreds of parents, hopefully not only tens of them, fortunately have been realizing what to do for having special needs children. If they are with good financial background spending hundreds of millions rupiahs to facilitate their beloved children is not a matter. Some publishers, regardless of their profiting aims, have published books which are not only telling the success stories but also of how to wisely take care of that special need ones. And some NGOs and private institutions as well have been the pioneers of conducting these special purposes education.

But there have been only thousands of more than a million and a half special needs children are likely facilitated so far. How about the rest? Will they be the lost-generation with no hope of enabling themselves even to be standing on their feet in this hardening life? Are we preparing some of our children who are by some people cursed as unlucky or even superstitiously cursed as being condemned to be dependant onto others?

As stated in editorial article of Washington Post, 29 April edition, special need students, following many observations, in most cases are assumed will be better handled in private schools. American public schools, although in some cases the teachers get better incomes and the schools get many kinds of aid from the government obviously have failed to provide proper services. The private schools, with its more limited financial capability and lower income teachers have proven themselves as the safer heaven and more promising atmosphere to make them mature.

When we ask a question about where to send the special need children to a randomly chosen official, there are usually two answers given. Firstly, because of his autism or any other problems, the student can be sent to Sekolah Luar Biasa or SLB (school for students with physical disabilities). Secondly, the official may say “Please find a good inclusive school. I recommend this school and that school.”

The more interesting facts, beside the idea of treating all special need students as the same with uniqueness is inappropriate it is really hard to find a good SLB that is run by the state. The second choice is even more ridiculous. As long as I know, inclusive schools mostly conducted by private institutions or foundations. A child will be very lucky if his parents can afford it. But how if the parents have been with all blood and sweat just to afford daily simple meals? Does not it mean that the disadvantaged remains disadvantaged?

It is also already known that sending a special need child to a therapy center costs a fortune. At a clinic providing therapy for special need children in Pamulang, a parent should pay between 100 to 300 thousand rupiah per session. Likewise, if a child with special needs is sent to a private inclusive school, such as Lazuardi GIS in Cinere, the fees can reach 2 – 3 millions per month excluding transportation, special sessions, and so on. If the parents wish a private therapist to handle their children at home they at least have to spend around 75 -150 thousand per session.

Up till now, none of my colleagues who are aide-teachers tell me that there is a therapy center opened for free by the government. On the other way, the National Education Department spends trillions annually for the sake of “education” special education remains untouched. As released by the National Education Department, for 2007 annual financial policy the amount for special education reached 365 billions plus the amount provided by regional district or provincial governments (Diknas, 2007). But unfortunately there are only some of the special need students have really got it.

It is also about people consciousness. Most of the people, as far as I know, especially the less educated parents, do not realize or know about what actually happened to Hee Ah Lee, Thomas Alva Edison, Lionel Messi, Agatha Christie, or even Albert Einstein. All of them faced at least an educational problem in their lives related to learning disabilities. Who knew in his childhood Edison had been sent home by the teacher for being unable to be like the other students? The common people in this part think linearly, as common as the government itself. They do not realize that Hee Ah Lee with her many disabilities has been able to play piano much better than a normal or even a genius.

The key of the problem here is about being knowledgeable and caring. So common to the people that someone who is good in math, sciences or languages deserves a better life and brighter future. They do not understand or convince yet about the concept of multiple intelligences proposed by Howard Gardner, for instance. They are still influenced strongly by the out of date myth of thinking monolithically, that better education is for the “completely built human.” Some or even most of the people have no idea yet that special need children actually are gifted and talented as long as they are facilitated.

The constitution says that every citizen deserves to get a suitable education and guaranteed by the state. It is, of course, so far is an article for the advantaged children. There is no actual action from the legislators as well as the executives I can found. In my days at schools the parents with their special need children still have to pay more, sometimes more than 200 percent fee to ensure them at least get what they deserve.

But at the end, this is the society that has to create an environment that makes more people more knowledgeable and caring through financial aid participation or even directly involved in handling it in the field. Expecting too much to the legislators or executives nowadays is a pitiful outcry anyhow. With their efforts to ensure new positions in the today’s political show our proposals of making the children get what they deserve will just on the sideline or even forgotten. Even though there is a ridiculous hope that some of them may suddenly get an idea to use this issue for one of their campaign. But finally it is us, the people, who actually can make a difference. They have been so busy with their own businesses.

The writer is a teacher

Indonesian education and a misleading paradigm

Khairil Azhar, 18 May 2009

Imprisoned teachers are likely to be less exciting issue nowadays as the national political feast is heating up, not only for the common people but also for the elites. The issue is probably something anxious and threatening only for their relatives or the government officials involved in imprisoning them or just precisely defending them. In fact, they have been there however because of the policies decided by the political elites and carried on the name of the people’s demands.

Beside of being sided by the political stir it is not really strange related to the education paradigm embraced by the current incumbent. Based on the story appeared at Kompas, Wednesday, 14 May 2009, the incumbent vice president seems to abandon the fact that national exams are threatening the teachers integrity and honor because they are eventually positioned in a dilemmatic duty of having to enhance the education quality in a hand and their regional prestige as well in the other one.

According to the next president candidate, national exams have been decided as a compulsory after a consideration of how Indonesian education badly left, for instance if it is compared to Malaysia and the Philippines. Without national exams many students tend to feel free and involve in students violence instead of learning. “They feel an ease not to study because of the certainty to pass without learning.” This was an answer given by the vice president to the questions asked by the teachers united in PGRI (Indonesian Teachers Union) when he “visited” Gedung Guru on Thursday, 14 May.

The short explanation however shows the tendency of applying an instant medication to many kinds of disease suffered by Indonesian education. It is like what was done in the story of Faust who was trying to find out a panacea in Goethe’s allusion in order to remedy any kind of diseases. The universal remedy is of course a mission impossible by any chance. Being left behind or students quarrels are only visible symptoms of many possible acute illnesses which are likely to be incurable in a short time or with a single move.

If the policy of national exams was intended as the first step to cope with the seen problems the government should have been wronged by a hurried assumption made prior to the implementation. It is then like an antivirus that has been bearing and spreading new stronger mutants. The policy, regardless the questionable success so far, on the other way has born many more complicated tendencies, such as the abandoning of student non-mathematic and linguistic gifted intelligence, the special need students, high cost education, and etcetera.

As students violence or lack of motivation in learning are two classic problems laid on the applied part of the education paradigm, the spontaneous answers given by the vice president also seemed to be irrelevant and out of bounds. On another word, he did not touch the underlying bricks causing the education underdevelopment and merely caught the tip of the huge iceberg.

And education is actually a process of building and decorating a big building. The government, in this case, is only caring with the appearance and good look. All efforts and forces are spilled all over the front side and face while the infrastructures left rotten and repaired by patching. If student violence is really a concern, for example, why does not the national educational department focus on the effort of facilitating and providing units of student activity at schools in a massive and systematic program rather then wasting all the water supply on the drought called national exams?

The vice president also said that the policy had been an alternative to overcome the imbalance of output quality among all regions in Indonesia. Certain students from certain regions pitifully are unable to enter Universitas Indonesia (UI), Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) and any other favorite universities. “The imbalance and gap is latently resulting a danger to the nation and even disintegration is likely to occur,” the Vice President went on.

But is education only about desired input and is not mattering the process which actually guaranteeing the output? Does the cognitive result represent a student’s performance, talent, and intelligences? Will he live a life with only certificates? Did Thomas Alfa Edison have school certificates? Did Agatha Christie pass all the tests that made her one of the best writers in the world? How did someone like the late President Soeharto progress to be on the hall of fame?

It is again about the need to change a paradigm. In 1984, Howard Gardner, the revolutionist in educational psychology, stated clearly that any kinds of tests, from the Binet IQ test to the present cognitive oriented tests, were out of what American students need. What they need, on the other way, were authentic assessment which represented their actual talents and gifts and could give them lights to discovering their abilities. Based on the truth of how every single human has uniqueness and its own intelligence(s), Gardner voiced the more humanistic approach to enhance American education.

The same movement actually has being proposed by some educationalists in Indonesia. The most recent proposal is likely to be what is called by Munif Chatib, an alumnus of DL Supercamp in California, as Sekolahnya Manusia, a school for human (Mizan, 2009). He is not only applying Gardner’s multiple intelligences quantum leap but also the taxonomy of testing paradigm by Benyamin S. Bloom, and other worldly educational experts. But the response so far is likely to be what have been said by Jusuf Kalla himself one or two years ago that “the experts themselves have thrust the education down into the abyss instead of curing it.”

The paradigm embraced by the current government therefore with its cognitive oriented system makes a school leave the other parts such as conscience and practical skills building. Talents and gifts granted by the God have become unrecognized because uniformity and universalism are the two underlying ideas in the paradigm. All children are to be shaped and prepared in the same way and result.

That is why probably Jalaluddin Rahmad, an Indonesian educationalist, Islamist, and communication expert, joked someday that the government with its educational policy seems to be against the God. Because with the national exams pass requirement, for example, the students are forced to be able in competences different from what the God actually has blessed them. And that is why, perhaps, Indonesian education is still left powerlessly behind and we will still probably see some teachers become all of a sudden inhabitants of the prisons.

The writer is a teacher.