Janus, A Roman God with two faces

Today, education in Indonesia experience a wake of questions, challenging its throne in this civilized nation. Amid the already outdated
case of National Examination and its association to political matter for a while, in the most-polite way we can say that education in Indonesia
is not in its nest shape. Institutionalized education, or whatever people call it, is the face of the system that youths face in Indonesia.
Schools stand as the vessel, curriculum as its backbone, and government as the system.

Who are we to deny a system? We are simply men of conduct.

To begin with, let us review the main purpose of education. One might say that it  is a way to shape a civilization. Another will argue that
education is a way to preserve knowledge. Still, as much as the statements fit to content, some others (like me) would see it to be pretty misleading.

Beyond all complications, it seems that education plays a perfect scene to conceal the need for survival. In short, I believe that we go to school
because our parents thought it would be a nice start for us to survive in the (later) working world. We spend years of education, dozens of subject
we barely have a clue, and faces we do not wish to meet, just to prepare for our twenties when we have to start making a living. Indeed that is
a bad way to put it into a single statement. However, the idea is that education might also be a perfect start-up to our survival
in the working world.

The problem is, this nation seems to forget the very core of education, instead it becomes institutionalized in a way that all learn using
the same (boring) pattern. It is good, in a way that we see this nation walks in harmony. However, we live in diversity,
where uniformity is questioned in critics.

Take national examination as an example. I notice that ever since I was born in 89, this so-called days of reckoning for students had been around.
The notion is good, to level this diverse nation through one standard.
But unlike most people, I was born to criticize. Forget equality, even if it is achieved, still there is one missing link from
this great concept of national examination.

One word, one idea, practicality.

What do we actually LEARN from national examination? We get smart. So what? If getting smart is all that we have been working on,
I suppose there are better ways to achieve it. 

Practicality, again. If one fails in national examination, what does that mean? It means that he or she is not qualified to proceed
to the next level of education.

Shut it. I went to English Department with my Math score of only 5,3. Still, my GPA went on above 3.

In a bold way to say, whatever score we manage to pull off in an examination has nothing to do with the continuation of one’s future.
Being smart (intelligent) is not always be the answer. But that is not what our teachers teach us, is it?
“Nail the score, you’ll get smart, you’ll get a good job, and you’ll marry someone pretty (enough).” Civilized, is not it?

Remember Janus? A Roman God with two faces. Perhaps it is the best way to portray our case today. On one hand, the system works pretty well
to cover the need for civilized Indonesiathrough proper education.
On the other hand, like it or not, it has failed to wrap the most basic need of us, life. Frankly, do we need to be having 169 IQ to earn a decent life?

Again, it is Janus, with one face facing reality, and another facing system.

Mikael Dian Teguh