In many countries, the youth unemployment rate is very high. In some countries, this is caused by lack of job fields. However, in many others, young people entering the workforce are not prepared for the jobs available – they are lack of the necessary skills and education. Unable to find good jobs, they face a difficult choice: remain unemployed or accept low-paying jobs with no opportunity for advancement. Improving the educational system is a key step towards creating a generation of young people who possess the skills and knowledge to participate in the economy, locally and globally.

Indonesia has the world’s fourth largest youth population, with over 38.4 million young women and men between the ages of 15 and 24 years. Across the country, they are making important contributions as innovators, entrepreneurs, productive workers, consumers, citizens, and members of civil society. They are at the forefront of technological revolutions and the democratization process. They are artists and athletes. Their culture enriches society and can be a force for positive change in cultural values. In short, they are the greatest assets for the present and the future, assets that we cannot afford to squander.

In the post-crisis period, the youth employment situation has deteriorated, which is shown by the growing share of untapped youth in the total youth population and the growing number of unemployed youth. By 2003, the unemployment rate of young men had risen to 25.5 per cent and those of young women to 31.5 per cent (source: sakernas). Overall, the youth unemployment rate was almost four times higher than the adult rate.

The full potential of the majority of Indonesian youth, however, is not being realized because they have no access to productive jobs. In 2003, the share of underutilized (unemployed and underemployed) youth in the labour force and the share of untapped (neither in education nor in the labour force) youth in the total youth population was 52.7 % and 19.5 %, respectively.

Youth unemployment and underemployment trends do not fully capture the youth employment problems in Indonesia because the latter often show up in divergent trends between the formal and the informal sectors and across economic sectors. The reason for this is that in the absence of unemployment insurance young jobseekers unable to find jobs in the formal sector have to enter the informal economy to support themselves and their families, as happened during the recession in 1997-98 and as has been the case in 2006-2008. In 2003 close to 60 % of the youth worked in the informal economy (IYENetwork). Most jobs in the informal economy are in low productivity activities where earnings are low and unstable. In contrast, the formal sector provides young workers with better quality jobs and higher wages and better working conditions.

Developing young people’s employability is the key policy issue for ensuring their successful transition to the labour market and their access to career oriented employment. Youth need to acquire the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will allow them to find work and cope with unpredictable labour market changes. The education system plays a crucial role in preparing youth for the labour market.

Relating to Indonesia education condition, Mr. Abdul Malik Fadjar (former Minister of National Education) admitted that education system in Indonesia was one of the worst in Asia. He also said that education was very influenced by socio-politic condition, including stability and security of the nation, because education process needed supportive environment. According to survey conducted by Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC), Indonesia education system was the worst of the twelve countries in Asia (Kompas newspaper, 5/9/2001). Nations Development Program (UNDP) reported that Indonesia’s HDI (Human Development Index) in 2004 was number 111 of 175 country and 110 of 177 in 2005, meanwhile poorer country had better HDI (Kyrgyzstan (110), Equatorial Guinea (109), and Algeria (108)). National Research and Development Agency (Bapenas) stated that from 146.052 primary schools, only eight got international acknowledgment in Primary Years Program (PYP). From 20.918 junior high schools only eight got international acknowledgment in The Middle Years Program (MYP) and from 8.036 high schools only seven schools got international acknowledgment in The Diploma Program (DP).

This condition shows that the quality of human resource development in Indonesia is related to education conduction. National education system is developing dynamically and influenced by political will and social dynamic. Political will, as a product of executive and legislative, is various regulation related to education conduction. Social dynamic, represents public action-reaction to every life aspects (politic, economy, even ideology) among them, also influences education dynamic. This is because every life aspects are sub-systems which inter-influencing in more complex system, the government system. Education is one of central subsystem, so it should be noticed and improved to maintain life process continuously.

In mapping education problems, the reality of education as a subsystem and a complex system has to be noticed at one time. Education as subsystem means that it is one of life aspects influenced by many external aspects which are related to each other. Politic, economy, socio-cultural, security, even ideology are related to education process. Education as complex system means that it has many internal aspects that related each other, hence in education process this internal aspects need to be assured by any relating stakeholder. Education, as a subsystem in government or country system, and other subsystems relation has three main problems.

First, capitalist economic system makes government point of view in conducting education as a government’s service to its people that requires economic sacrifice from its people. Education becomes commodity that can be accessed by people who have a lot of money. In other word, poor people are forbidden to access education. This is stated in national law (UU Sisdiknas No.20/2003) that the conduction of education is shifted to people from the government. This means that every education institutes have to earn operating cost by themselves. By doing education privatization, it means the government has commercialized education and hand over the obligation of conducting education to market. This will make every school determine the operating cost by themselves and they will set the fee as high as they can to maintain and improve the quality of education. In the end, only the rich people have access to good quality school. According to World Bank report in 2004, Indonesia government provides only 62,8 % of national education conduction budget needed at the same time India government provides 89 % of national education process budget needed (www.worldbank.com).

Second, opportunistic political life has created machiavelis politician character (will do anything for earning personal benefit) in executive and legislative level. Government, by making national regulation, is planning to commercialized education. As described previously, it will lead to expensive education. Poor people who want to change their life are unable to get good job caused by inadequate education. Poor people will stay poor, and rich people will be richer. In other word, government will eliminate the poor opportunity to get good living.

Third, some important determinants of education quality that need to be addressed include the level of teacher qualification, the structure of teacher compensation, class-room quality, teacher attendance rates, and class size. For primary and junior secondary levels, only about 55 and about 73 % of the teachers have the minimum qualifications required by the Ministry of National Education (MoNE). There is a clear need for teacher educational attainment to be improved in Indonesia. The Government is tackling this with its recent law on teacher certification (December 2005) by providing a new form of incentives for all teachers to obtain certifications. These additional incentives will significantly increase teacher base salaries. The increases could translate into higher learning achievement if adequate mechanisms and institutions of performance control (i.e. teacher attendance and teaching quality) are implemented. Furthermore, strong accountability is a required precondition for effective performance control. Effective accountability mechanisms in other countries have combined top-down accountability (from schools to districts-provinces) with bottom-up accountability (from schools to constituents and parent committees).

Deteriorating classroom quality is another serious problem for the Indonesian education system, particularly at the primary level, where only 44 percent of classrooms satisfy the minimum standards set by MoNE. In the past, the government’s education strategy has favored access at the expense of quality. Finally, although the student-teacher ratio is low, the fact that there are large numbers of part-time and absent teachers still leads to a high student-class ratio.

Moreover, the Indonesian education system does not produce enough students with the knowledge and skills required to work in economic sectors with high growth potential. Indonesian newspapers report frequently on the gap between what schools offer, and the needs of civil society for an engaged electorate, as well as the demands of the enterprise sector for employees and entrepreneurs with imagination and problem-solving skills. The results of the 2002 examinations show that out of a possible 10 points for each subject area, the more than 2.2 million students from nearly 20,000 schools who took the tests averaged scores of 5.79 of 10 for math, 5.11 of 10 for Bahasa Indonesia, and 5.29 of 10 for English. Figures for 2005/2006 indicate a significant increase in scores, now averaging 7.13 for math, 7.46 for Bahasa Indonesia, and 6.62 for English. The reliability of the test results is debatable however, and comparing test-scores across years is only valid if the test-designs do not change substantially.

Although education budgets are increasing, Indonesia’s extremely low student-teacher ratios (STR) suggest inefficiencies in sector spending. While low STR provides the potential quality benefit of more teacher-student interaction, general consensus is that a STR of 30:1 is optimal and that levels below this have very low marginal returns. Since teacher salaries are a significant cost, a low STR tends to have a high financial burden. Indonesia has one of the lowest student-teacher ratios in the region. Comparable STRs for Asia/Pacific countries are around 31:1 for primary and 25:1 for junior secondary.28 Indonesia’s rates are significantly lower, at ~20 and ~14 for primary and junior secondary respectively. Indonesia’s ratios are on par or even lower than the ratios in the US and many European countries. It is also well below Indonesia’s national policy regarding STR, which is set at 40:1 for primary and 28:1 for junior secondary.

With the introduction of a new Teacher Law in December 2005, the government introduced a new teacher certification requirement which increases teacher remuneration, while also improving level of qualifications. Designing teacher salaries and incentive structures that attract and retain the best and the brightest candidates to the teaching profession is a complex task. This fact is particularly true for Indonesia, whose teacher salaries are considered relatively low. Low pay is likely a main reason that teachers perform poorly, have low morale, and tend to be poorly qualified. The level of teacher salaries in Indonesia, adjusted for purchasing power, is significantly lower than that of other countries.

As a youth, I propose to tackle the education and training systems in Indonesia, and strengthen student link to the workplace, so that young school-leavers and job-seekers are well equipped to take advantage of employment opportunities. The emphasis is on basic schooling that provides quality education, on vocational training that is responsive to the needs of the labour market, and on the preparation of young women and men for labour market entry. This idea will give its best result if it is led by the Ministry of National Education as they have many resource and good network.

Completion of basic education is a necessary pre-condition for successful entry to the labour market. To achieve the universal basic education (nine-year schooling), efforts are needed to improve the access of the poor to junior secondary education. To reduce drop-out rates at the primary level and increase the enrolment rate at junior and secondary school levels the key issues are to make education affordable to the poor and improve the quality of schooling.

Making education affordable for the poor can be achieved by eliminate hidden fees such as school entrance fees and lower uniform and book costs, reduce the educational costs for the poor through targeted scholarships, consider using 1 % of national revenues to support education of the poor, and provide incentives to encourage local communities, charitable organisations, and private sector companies to set up foundations that provide grants and scholarships for needy students and their families.

Improve the quality of education can be achieved by invest more in educational infrastructure, gradually increase teachers’ salaries, combined with substantial improvements in teacher status, professional competency and teaching materials, establish nation-wide minimum service and qualification standards; this requires close collaboration between central and local educational authorities, set up an independent educational assessment body, that monitors and evaluates performance of schools nation-wide. Assessments carried out could encourage local governments to reconsider future funding and the existence of under-performing educational institutions, and build on the recently established school committees and councils, efforts need to be made vis à vis the accountability of school management and to elicit better performance.

The Government has recently embarked on a process of reforming the technical and vocational training system. This involves the development of a National Professional Qualification Framework, followed by the development of qualification standards for core skills, a system of accreditation and skills recognition and new funding arrangements. This is an enormous task that will require substantial resources in both time and money. In the short term the recommendations are develop a national qualification framework, strengthen the network of vocational education and training centers of excellence, exposure to the world of work, build bridges between educational institutions and the business community, and better preparation of school-leavers for labour market entry.

Develop a national qualification framework can be achieved by finalize and adopt the draft regulation on the National Vocational Training System needs by parliament and develop a nationwide competency based skills recognition standards system. Such a system would make the labour market more transparent and the skills more portable, allowing for a smoother transition of school leavers to the labour market.

Strengthen the network of vocational education and training centers of excellence are done by strengthen the capacity of training centers to formulate training policies and delivery of competency based training. This program should involve all the relevant stakeholders including regional governments, chambers of commerce and industry, employers’ organisations, and private sector training providers. The training centers could then act as model institutions that provide good examples and lessons learned for the reform of the national training system.

Exposure to the world of work is an essential part of young people’s preparation for entering the workforce, not only in order to shape their educational career at an early point but also to facilitate the transition from the educational system to the workplace environment where new skills and attitudes are required.

Build bridges between educational institutions and the business community is encouraging employers to provide effective internship and work experience programs, including apprenticeship programs, which help students to see the connection between learning and work, to understand how specific knowledge and skills are applied in real world context, and develop new attitudes and gain confidence. Employers can also support teachers by advising them on technology and industry standards, and improving curriculum. Employers’ organizations have a key role to play as intermediaries between education and training. Identify good examples and encourage companies, universities, vocational education and training institutions to develop partnerships. Such partnerships may take the form of verbal and written agreements. Lessons learned should be disseminated to generate learning across the country.

Education is a right for every citizen. It gives the citizens knowledge, skills, and later, jobs. Unable to get or to finish proper education, youth will face difficult choices: remain unemployed or accept low-paying jobs with no opportunity for advancement. Focusing job-creation efforts on youth could give them the opportunity to become more active and productive participants in the workforce and enjoy a greater degree of social integration. Government has responsibility to provide prosperity life to its citizens. Job creation is one effort to offer more job opportunities. When it reaches the limit of the national budget, private institutions will then give contribution in improving the job-creation. Proper education will help people find good job easier and to have a better life. Education system requires reformation in its system to support the good education for the people and prosperity.

kemal argha yuwana