Education is
the process doing by someone in order to get knowledge. Through education,
people can learn many things that they have never learnt or enrich their
knowledge about some special skills. Etymologically,
the word education is derived from the Latin ēducātiō
(“A breeding, a bringing up, a rearing) from ēdūcō (“I
educate, I train”) which is related to the homonym ēdūcō (“I
lead forth, I take out; I raise up, I erect”) from ē- (“from,
out of”) and dūcō (“I lead, I conduct”) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education). Don Berg said that education is merely the delivery of knowledge,
skills and information from teachers to students, is inadequate to capture what
is really important about being and becoming educated. He also added that
Education is a process of cognitive cartography, mapping someone experiences
and finding a variety of reliable routes to optimal states when he find himself
in non-optimal states. Ki Hajar Dewantara explained that Education
is every effort to advance the character, physical, thinking of someone in
order to advance the perfection of their life so they can live in harmony with
the nature and society. Rosseau added that To
educate is to Provide debriefing That does not exist in childhood, but is
needed in Adulthood. John Dewey define Education as a
process of renewal of the meaning of experience, That Will Probably one occur
in the ordinary association or association of adults young people, may also
occur in a deliberate and institutionalized to generate social sustainability.
This process involves the oversight and development of minors and the group in which
he lived. (http://lapazinaction.blogspot.com/2011/12/definition-of-education-by-expert-2.html). Besides the
definitions above, there are still many other experts have talked about
education.
From what has
been said by the experts, it can be seen that education is not only process of
getting knowledge in schools, but also about everything people do in order to
get knowledge or experiences to be able to live well in the society. From the
definitions above especially stated by Rosseau and John Dewey, we can learn
that education is not only for children or young people, but also for all
people including adults. Other references said it long life education, in which during we still alive, there is no
reason for us to stop learning. This because there are many things in our life
need to be learnt and we have no power to learn it once, so we need to learn it
step by step along our life.
Education has
been a very crucial need for human beings. Without education, it is impossible
for human beings to be able to continue their life well. Start from the first
day of their life, education has influenced humans’ life. They learn to listen
what their mother said, they learn to ask something by using the signs the
produced by their organ of speech for example cry or may be using another organ
to say that they are hungry, they need something and so on. All of these
include the process of someone to get knowledge which is called education. From
this example, we can see that human cannot be separated from education. In
other words I can say say that no human without education because a person can acts
like a human because he learn from human. The characteristic of human being can
be seen in a man because he learnt to be a human. Let’s consider a man who born
in the forest who never have interaction with other people. I think he will not
act like human being, because he never know how human beings life. He will
mostly act like animal. How a man can speak like man if he had never been told
to speak by his parents?, or how a man can eat by using plate and spoon if he
never see or no one told him about it?. So human beings can speak, walk, eat, work,
run, and do the other things because of education process. So we can see how
important education is for human beings.
From its
form, education can be divided into three forms. Those are formal education,
informal education, and non-formal education. The differences of these three
forms of education can be seen below:
Formal education –
Organized, guided by a formal curriculum, leads to a formally recognized
credential such as a high school completion diploma or a degree, and is often
guided and recognized by government at some level. Teachers are usually trained
as professionals in some way.
Non-formal learning –
Organized (even if it is only loosely organized), may or may not be guided by a
formal curriculum. This type of education may be led by a qualified teacher or
by a leader with more experience. Though it doesn’t result in a formal degree
or diploma, non-formal education is highly enriching and builds an individual’s
skills and capacities. Continuing education courses are an example for adults.
Girl guides and boy scouts are an example for children. It is often considered
more engaging, as the learner’s interest is a driving force behind their
participation.
Informal learning –
No formal curriculum and no credits earned. The teacher is simply someone with
more experience such as a parent, grandparent or a friend. A father teaching
his child to play catch or a babysitter teaching a child their ABC’s is an
example of informal education
In this
article, I just want to focus on formal education especially in schools in East
Nusa Tenggara (NTT), in which what is the good concept need to be done in
schools in NTT from elementary school (SD), Junior High school (SMP), and
Senior High School (SMA) in order to make our education can compete with the
education in the other places. Before we go to these topics, let’s see the
condition of education nowadays.
Education East Nusa Tenggara (NTT)
East Nusa Tenggara
(Indonesian: Nusa Tenggara Timur) is a province of Indonesia in
the eastern part of the Lesser Sunda Islands, including West Timor. The
provincial capital is Kupang in West Timor. East Nusa Tenggara is the only province in Indonesia
where Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion. Talking about education in East Nusa
Tenggara, it is still in low level if we consider it to other provinces in
Indonesia. According news which is published in TEMPO.CO, 26th of May 2012 about the
result of National Examination of SMP and SMA in Indonesia, East Nusa Tenggara
(NTT) got the lowest rank of graduation in Indonesia. From 36.228 students of
SMA/SMK, there are 34.304 or 94,5% who pass, while 1.924 students fail. Even
though the percentage is enhance 0,07%, but the rank in Indonesia is not
difference with last year, in which East Nusa Tenggara in the last rank of the
whole 33 provinces in Indonesia. This condition shows that East Nusa Tenggara
(NTT) has low power to compete with other provinces in Indonesia.
Besides from
the result of National examination, the condition of education in East Nusa
Tenggara also can be seen from human Resource in this Province. Human resource
of East Nusa Tenggara is still in low level. Most university graduations cannot
create their own job field. They still hang their life to the government, in
which they compete to be PNS. Being PNS is not a bad thing, but the impact for
those who fail is not good. Many of them cannot work because of fail to be PNS.
If someone has good knowledge and ability to do something, he will hang his
life to be PNS, but he will try to think about something to do to get money,
moreover he can provide new job for other people. But it is not happen in East
Nusa Tenggara. PNS is the priority, while other jobs cannot be seen by them. So
people in East Nusa Tenggara are categorized as lazy people. If we consider
with other province, for example in Java Island, people would like to have
their own job more than being a PNS. They like independent job more than PNS.
The condition
of human resource as has been explained above can reflect the condition of
education in East Nusa Tenggara. If the education quality is good, I think
people will change their mind to be PNS. They will fight; work hard to find new
way when they fail to be PNS. They will create new jobs not only for themselves
but also for other people. But not many many people in East Nusa Tenggara can
do it. It means that the education in this province hasn’t able to solve the
problem unemployment. So the system of education need to be paid attention by
the government or whomever who take responsibility in this province. Education
needs to be develop in order to create people who competitive, hard worker, and
have braveness to do something new.
The questions
are how to develop the education in this province? What concept need to be use
in order to make education can go better? From what level we have to develop
our education?. In this article, I will some important things or concepts need
to be done by schools in East Nusa Tenggara in order to develop education in
this province. I will divide it into three points, based on the level of
education, in which Elementary School (SD), Junior High School (SMP), and
Senior High School (SMA/SMK).
Education in Elementary Schools
Elementary
school is very important for children. In this place, children will get their
first formal education. Even though many of them have gotten little knowledge
from Kindergarden, but it cannot be denied that most children in East Nusa
Tenggara especially those who come from village, don’t have chance to join
Kindergarden, they directly go to elementary school as their first place to get
knowledge formally. So commonly elementary school is the foundation for
children to construct themselves what they will be in the next. It means that
elementary school have a very crucial role for the development of education of
someone. Because nothing can be build more without foundation.
In order to
enhance the development of education in East Nusa Tenggara, the Elementary
School teachers should prepare good foundation for the students. With this good
foundation, the students will progress well in the next steps of education. It
might be a good start for them to get their future. In other hand, if their
foundation is not so good, it is difficult for them to go to next steps. So the
teachers in the elementary schools need to prepare the students with good basic
knowledge, they have strengthen the foundation of these young generations as
strong as possible.
In elementary
schools, the teachers need to prepare not only knowledge for the students, but
also they have to stimulate the students’ creativity. They have to train the
students to be creative as early as possible. The process of teaching learning
not only focus in the classroom, but once for a while they can make outdoor
teaching, in which they lead the students to the school yard or the other
interesting places in order to make them more familiar to nature. It high
recommended for the elementary school teachers to choose a place that have
relation to the material will be taught, so the students are able to become
more familiar with what the teachers teach, because they can see the object
directly.
It needs to
be remember that in age of elementary schools, the children’s brain have very
good capability to remember something. It needs to be functioned by the
teachers to prepare more and more things or material for the students. It is a
chance for them to enrich their students’ knowledge, of course with good strategy
for teaching, so the students can understand it easily. The materials also need
to be familiar to the students and easy to be applied in their daily life. The
teachers also need pay attention attention the students’ language skills,
listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Below are some important points needed to be
able to be done by the elementary school students based on their grade:
For those who have learn alphabets in the kindergarden, in first grade,
they should be learning how to read now, which is a crucial step in learning
how to write stories.
Teachers need to let them read short books and then ask them what made the story they just read so good,
or what made it bad. They should advance a little in writing now, so
they should be able to write out the
entire alphabet and start making short words. Second grade children should be able to read small chapter books, and
start learning some bigger words. Enhance their vocabulary to bigger
words, and teach them about sentence
structure, and get them working on paragraphs and long stories. By third grade, students should be reading almost or very fluently in
chapter books. They should still be learning some high vocabulary and they should be writing at
least 3 paragraph stories. The teachers should also teach them how to
write informational pieces too. When scholars reach fourth grade, they should
be reading fluently now, and have a good range of vocabulary. They
should be able to write long stories
and informational pieces too. Teachers can also teach them how to write
a response to literature. 5th grade is
the students last year of elementary school. By then, they should have a
very wide range of vocabulary, and
fluent reading. They should be reading books with 100-400 pages now. Their writing should
include long stories, informational
pieces, and they should learn how to write an advertisement too. ( http://www.wikihow.com/Teach-Language-Arts-to-Elementary-School-Students)
Not only attention
to the knowledge and creative of the students, the education of character also
needs to be taught well soon. The teachers need to construct their students
character since elementary school, besides having good knowledge, they also
have good character. It can help them in the next development for being smart
and wise people, because it is useless to have good knowledge without good
behaviour. For example, the terrorist, they have brilliant knowledge, but not
supported by good character, so they endanger many people. So characterization
of students needs to be paid attention from elementary school as the basic one.
In Junior High School (SMP)
Junior high
school is a step in formal education after elementary school. In this step,
students need to be prepared well with good knowledge. The focus of teaching to
show them various knowledge in order to lead them to make their own choice of
learning. The teachers need to enrich their knowledge not only about the
teaching material but also whatever common knowledge which can help them to
live well in society.
The language
teachers need more focus in their students’ language skill in this step. For
example an English teacher should be able to prepare his students to be able
speak English at least for every day communication with basic structure. It can
help to develop their knowledge of English when they come to senior high
school. The mathematic teachers should make sure that before their students
graduate from junior high school; they have to master the basic mathematics
formula that can help them in their further education. By mastering the basic
knowledge in Junior high school, the student will easy to learn the application
in the step of formal education. They also need to be taught about the new
science, so their knowledge is up to date.
Besides
knowledge, the education of character also should be prepared by the teachers
in this step because will go to their age of puberty in which they tried to
find the self-identity. It is very important for their future, so the teachers
need to pay more attention to this problem. Before they step their age of
puberty, their character need to be directed to the good way. If the teachers
fail to characterize their students in this step, it is really difficult to
help them in the next when they are in their age of puberty. The impact is they
can become undisciplined students, naughty students, and any other bad things
they can do in their senior high school next or in their society. If it is so,
the other knowledge they have learnt will be useless for them because use it
not at its place. It can be found that some students are brilliant in junior
high school, but because of the failure in constructing their character, they
lost their statue as brilliant students in senior high school because of their
laziness as the impact of the failure of educating their character.
Senior High School (SMA/SMK)
It the last
step of education of the students in high school before going to university or
finding a job. If in junior high school the teacher focusing in enriching the
students’ knowledge about any subject, in this step the teachers need to come
to application of the knowledge. The teachers should be able to guide and lead
their students to be able to apply any subject they learnt. So in this step,
students not only learn the knowledge, but they also have to be able to apply
it in real life. For example an English teacher needs to make his students to
be able to listen, speak, read, and write by using English well, and they can
apply it in real communication, for example talking with tourist, writing
discourse by using English, etc.
It cannot be
denied that it is really difficult for a person to master the application of
all subjects in senior high schools, so it really important to make the
specification of knowledge in senior high school. The students can choose a
subject that they know well or interested in to learn and apply. Actually the specification
and classification of subject to be learnt in East Nusa Tenggara Province in
specific and Indonesia in general had been applied, but it is not enough. The
specification made here is only consisting of three classes: Language Class
(Kelas Bahasa) , Natural Science Class (Kelas IPA), and Social Science Class
(Kelas IPS), while we know there are many languages in Language Class, many
subject in Natural Science and also Social Science Classes. So the students
cannot focus in one subject to make them able to find the application well.
It is better
it is made more specific, for example a student can choose the one or two
subjects he interested in and know well, and he learn it more focus until the
application in the real life. In his writing in Kompas (28 Desember
2011) about Desentralisasi Pendidikan,
Tans that the students need to be allowed to choose their own subject to be
learnt, for example Reading-Writing plus English and playing football or
Mathematics and Physics only.
Learning to
apply is very important in this step of education because we know that after
senior high school, not all students have chance to continue their education in
University to develop their knowledge. Some of them go directly to work. It is
difficult for them if they cannot apply they get in school to their job. So the
teachers have to show the application of the knowledge the teach and ask the
students to apply it through assignment or the other strategy to make them
familiar with the application of the knowledge they got and make them easy to
work in their future. So the focus of teaching here is not only focus on the
knowledge but also the skill to apply the knowledge. Besides the application of
knowledge, the application of good character also need to be paid attention by
the teachers.
At the end of
my writing I want to restate some important points related to how to prepare
the students of Elementary School, Junior and Senior high School. To make a
good foundation of student in elementary school, the teachers need to prepare
the students not only with knowledge, but also train their creativity and
construct their character, and then in Junior High School, the teachers should
prepare them with more knowledge so they can choose one to be applied in the
next, while in Senior High School, the teachers need to prepare them not only
in knowledge but also the application of the knowledge in real life. I think by
following the points have been stated above, the education in East Nusa Tenggara
especially and Indonesia in common will grow better in the future.
REFERENCES
Berg, Don.2012. Definition of Education, (online), (http://www.teach-kids-attitude- 1st.com/definition-of-education.html, was accessed on June 2, 2012)
Eaton, Sarah
Elaine. 2012. Formal, Non-formal and Informal Learning: What Are the Differences?, (online), (http://drsaraheaton.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/formal-non-formal-and-informal-learning-what-are-the-differences, was accessed on June, 2 2012 )
Kimmer, Cs.
2012. How to Teach Language Arts to
Elementary School Students, (online), (http://www.wikihow.com/Teach-Language-Arts-to-Elementary-School-Students was accesed in June 2, 2012)
Sharif, Roni.
2012. DEFINITION OF EDUCATION BY THE
EXPERT (2), (online), (http://lapazinaction.blogspot.com/2011/12/definition-of-education-by-expert-2.html, was accessed on June 2, 2012)
Tans, Felix.
28 Desember, 2011. Desentralisasi
Pendidikan. Kompas
TEMPO.CO. 26 Mei 2012. Rekor Buncit Kelulusan di NTT Akibat
Jebloknya Nilai IPA, (online), (http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2012/05/26/079406246/Rekor-Buncit-Kelulusan-di-NTT-Akibat-Jebloknya-Nilai-IPA, was accessed on
June 2, 2012)
Wikipedia.2012.
Education, (online), (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education, accessed on June,
2 2012)
(Penulis: Risad Kollo)
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