In most developing countries, since Independence, the education system has become a battle ground for different political interests; however the system has apparently worked based on the following common assumptions (Clignet, 1980:165). First, to remedy the shortage of leadership, managerial and other high- level of manpower to develop the economy, mass education is required. Secondly, mass education will change the feudalistic attitude of the society into meritocratic attitudes, which encourage individual achievement. Thirdly, through mass education the widespread inequality can be narrowed. This optimism toward the effects of the education system on national development has resulted in a substantial proportion of the national budget being devoted to education, resulting in the rapid growth of the educated labour force.
Similar assumptions have also been adopted in Indonesia. Under the Sukarno government, however, the education system was the locus of fierce competition between religious education and secular education and between general and vocational education. Under the New Order government since 1966, which is more pragmatic in its approach, the ideological issues have been relatively dormant for some time, but the issue then shifted to another front: whether the education system’s main function is to serve industry. Not only did the issue originate from one of the main policies of the New Order government to give priority to economic growth, but the issue has increased in importance since the Pelita II (The Second Five Year Development Plan, 1973-78) owing to the increase in urbanization. While this educational policy debate continues, nevertheless, there was an agreement that children needed more access to all levels of education. Supported by the government’s success in economic development, resulting from the ‘oil boom’ in the 1970s in particular, this need has been realized in the rapid growth of educational institutions at all levels, but without substantial change in the character of the curriculum, which continued to emphasize humanities and arts. The educational policy seems to be one of ‘quantity first’. In recent years the issue of the ‘quality’ or the relevance of education to development needs has been given more emphasis, mainly because of the growing number of unemployed among educated people (Santoso^, 1993; Drost, 1993; andBuchory, 1993).
The ‘quantity first’ policy has resulted in the rapid growth of educational institutions, especially at higher education levels. Rapid growth of higher education institutions is occurring initially as a response to high demand from the society as well as from the government, because investment in higher education
has been seen as profitable for individuals and on the other hand, the government had assumed that economic growth could not be achieved without a sufficient high-level manpower. Private institutions of higher education have also multiplied because this has been seen as a lucrative business. However, in the current situation, the rapid growth of higher education institutions seems to be caused by a new situation in which the increasing number of job seekers with more education is inducing employers to increase the level of education qualification as part of the entry criteria, thus forcing parents and children to attain a higher educational qualification to effectively realize their high occupational expectations.
One of the results has been the rapid increase in the number of school pupils at all levels of education. In Jakarta, Central and East Java provinces, the education attainment of the urban youth has also increased markedly. Table 2.1 shows that in the 1980-1990 period, there has been a decrease in the proportion of young people with primary educational qualifications and below, and on the other hand a sharp increase in the proportion of young people with secondary and higher education qualifications.
Table 2.1.
Percentage distribution o f highest educational attainment o f urban youth 15 to 29 years by province, 1980 and 1990. Educational Attainment P r o v in c e Below Prima ry Pri mary Junior second ary Senior second ary Acad emy Uni versity T otal % N ( 0 0 0 ) J a k a r t a 1 9 8 0 2 6 .8 3 1 .7 2 0 .7 1 9 .2 1.1 0 .4 100 2 0 5 5 1 9 9 0 1 0 .7 2 7 .1 2 7 .2 3 0 .8 2 .2 1.9 100 2 9 7 1 C e n t r a l J a v a 1 9 8 0 3 1 .0 3 1 .7 2 1 .8 1 4 .5 0 .6 0 .3 100 1 4 1 5 1 9 9 0 1 4 .7 3 1 .1 2 6 .8 2 4 .5 1.7 1.3 100 2 2 7 3 E a s t J a v a 1 9 8 0 2 9 .4 3 2 .9 2 1 .8 15.1 0 . 6 0 .3 100 1 7 6 8 1 9 9 0 1 2 .2 2 7 .9 2 7 .7 2 8 .8 1.4 2.1 100 2 8 8 3 I n d o n e s ia 1 9 8 0 2 7 .4 3 2 .5 2 2 .4 1 6 .5 0 .8 0 .4 100 1 0 4 2 4 1 9 9 0 1 2 .2 2 7 .3 2 8 .0 2 8 .9 1.7 1.6 100 1 8 1 8 4
This increase in the quantity of education, however, apparently is not primarily responding to the employment opportunities arising in a growing economy. The government manpower policy tends to be biased or unbalanced as a result of limited resources or as a result of political pressures. Some of the political pressures are, first, those that emphasize religious and state ideology education, which may produce graduates that are not matched with the demand for labour in the economy. Secondly, for the interests of the middle class in the country the government may also be forced to continue to subsidize higher education where most of the middle-class children can enroll. Thirdly, political objectives of regional equity in educational facilities and standard national curricula may push them into locating too many schools in the regions with curricula which lack relevance to the local economic needs. This will result in a supply of graduates which could not match the quality and the quantity of labour demand in the economy. In Indonesia as a whole as well as in the three provinces, the educational system therefore tends to be structurally biased toward a certain type of education which in turn creates a surplus of educated labour with a certain type of educational qualification, and shortage of labour with other types of educational qualification.
One of the results of the educational content, which places stress on general and humanity education, is that in these three provinces, as well as in Indonesia, there is a cultural bias in job preference towards the clerical or ‘soft’ jobs, that mostly are in urban areas (interview with Bappedda official, 1991; Sudomo cited in Kompas, 1987:1). Therefore the ‘style and orientation’ of educational policy, which has significant effects on the growth of young people
in urban areas in particular, is partly responsible for job expectations among educated people.