I have read some concerns about the sekolah-sekolah berstandar internasional (SBIs) in Indonesia. One of these concerns is the reduction of the Indonesian identity as a result of the attempted shift towards international educational standards.

I can understand the concerns. I think this is again (as I have been saying all these while) there is a general confusion about what an “SBI” means. One of the most glaring problems that is the result of this confusion is the copying of a model which is perhaps most unsuited for Indonesia. Here I am talking about the Singapore school model that has often been adopted by schools in Indonesia as the model par excellent. This adoption of the Singapore model may be due to a few reasons.

Firstly, it may be due to Singapore’s international reputation for producing “top” students in international olympiads and also in international surveys like TIMSS. Secondly, it is due to Singapore’s proximity to Indonesia which perhaps serve to remind Indonesians of what is lacking in their educational system especially bearing in mind how small Singapore really is in comparison to giant Indonesia. Thirdly, wealthy Indonesians have historically sent their children to Singapore before the financial meltdown of the 1980s for an education and that is the education system they are most familiar with. It is not a surprise therefore that they look to Singapore as a model. Fourthly, the setting up of the Singapore International School (SIS) with its Singapore curriculum in Jakarta, brings the model even closer to Indonesians. The result is a rush to imitate the Singapore system. With Diknas promoting the idea of SBIs, the SIS model is seen as the model to follow for Indonesia. I believe that in general this is no fault of Diknas but more the fault of the owners of such schools which are usually privately-owned schools who have one eye fixed on profits. While making profits is not a sin, owners should be more serious about what education is about.

This blind aping of the Singapore system has meant a few things for these schools that aspire to be of international standards. Firstly, it has led to an emphasis on students taking international examinations like the iPSLE and the IGCSE because that is the nearest equivalent to the PSLE and the Singapore-Cambridge GCE “O” and “A” level examinations done in Singapore. The adoption of these examinations has meant that some subjects traditionally found in Indonesian schools have been given reduced emphasis especially subjects like Bahasa Indonesia and Social Studies with sometimes these subjects being combined. Nobody really stops to ask why international examinations are necessary in the first place. Indonesian students have had no  problems going to overseas universities in the first place without these examinations. They still can with their indigenous educational qualifications.

The second change which is perhaps another reason for the lament about the loss of the Indonesian identity, is the over-emphasis in the use of the English language. Here again there is an unchecked assumption that to be of international standard, a school must offer English as the medium of instruction. For schools like SIS where students take the iPSLE and the IGCSE, English is required as a medium of instruction because the examinations are done in English. Mastery of English is crucial. But some of the National Plus schools in Indonesia who have been touting themselves or planning to be SBIs have also chosen to take the same route. But what the owners have ignored is that, in the SIS model, almost all the teaching staff are very effective expatriate speakers of English. You have a staff of native English speakers supported by teachers from Singapore and the Philippines. Almost all the National Plus schools that want to offer IGCSE don’t have that. They have opted for a token approach with maybe one or two native English speakers. I do not mean any disrespect to Indonesian teachers but teaching in English is a problem for most of them. I am sure Indonesian teachers will agree that if Singapore teachers are asked to teach in Bahasa Indonesia to prepare their students in Bahasa Indonesia-based examinations, it will be pure folly. Using English as a medium of instruction requires a higher English language competency than a TOEFL score of 500. Even then Indonesian schools that aspire to be SBIs and touting the use of English as one of the essentials of SBIs, have great difficulty of getting teachers with that score of 500.

But despite these language difficulties, I believe Indonesians should not think that it is beyond them to get to the level of SBIs. But a re-intepretation of what an SBI is must be done. Perhaps, “re-intepretation” is not the correct term. A return to a proper understanding of what SBI is more accurate. Mastery of a foreign language was never one of the goals set for the SBIs by Diknas. What Diknas wants at the end of the day is a good educational standard where good teaching is done. Schools in Indonesia can set themselves that standard of quality teaching. By quality teaching it means teaching that is relevant to the needs of a modern Indonesian nation who aspires to be a member of this globalized world, yet firmly anchored in its Indonesian identity.

This can be done using the Indonesian curriculum with a lot of re-training for the teachers and some tweaking of the curriculum. Indonesian schools should still use the Indonesian language as the medium of instruction. This is for both nationalistic and pragmatic reasons. Indonesia is not Singapore and I believe the Indonesian schools will be better off as Indonesian schools then as “half-baked Singapore schools”.

Based on my experience with Indonesian schools and their use of ICT for education, I have found that their ICT use for education has been restricted by a few main issues. The first of these is the approach, that is, ICT is often seen as separate from the learning of the various subjects in the school curriculum.  This has a lot of implications on the deployment of ICT resources in the schools and also with regards to the teaching and learning approaches that is to be used.

Secondly, the issue is the issue of costs. Most national schools will not be able to pay for ICT equipment that is required. Schools in Indonesia, including the so-called National Plus or even Sekolah Berstandar Internasional (SBIs) should seriously look at the first issue because a change in the approach towards the use of ICT in education can lead to greater cost-savings.

An integrated approach to ICT in education will mean that ICT is not taught as a separate subject but used as a tool to assist in the teaching and learning processes in the subjects taught in schools. Unfortunately, the tendency in Indonesia even today is to see the use of ICT as a separate thing from the main school curriculum. This means that in practice, schools that can afford computers will opt for a stand-alone computer laboratory approach where software is taught rather then putting them where it mattes most, that is, in the classrooms.

This is in my view, unwise as it means that at any given time only one class can use the computer laboratory at a time. Along with this setup, is the one-computer-one-user approach. However, an integrated approach to the use of ICT for education implies the use of computers in the classrooms not just the labs. How do you spread the limited computers to as many classrooms as possible? I have often suggested that laptops be used. Today I will suggest the use of netbooks instead of standard laptops. Netbooks are a lot cheaper and if the goal is for ICT integration there is no need for the full-blown power of a laptop. An Office suite with internet access can do wonders.

In addition, the integrated approach also means that you do not need a one-to-one computer to student ratio. What this means is that instaed of buying PCs which are fixed in terms of mobility, netbooks should be bought for classroom use. Within the budget available, choose netbooks with the goal of obtaining enough for about four classrooms at any one time. But since the netbooks is to be shared, only about five netbooks are required for each classroom. This means that at any one time four classes can have ICT integrated lessons instead of just one, giving rise to a grand total of 20 netbooks to give the school’s ICT in education program a kick start. Of course, if the school has money, it can buy more but the goal is not towards one-to-one student-to-netbook ratio. The goal is to be able to get as many classrooms as possible to have ICT integrated lessons at any one time.

Once this is done, the schools need to only ensure good internet access. With wireless technology, it will be far simpler to link the classrooms to the world. The savings from using netbooks instead can be used to make available the required internet connection.

With the arrival of Windows 7, there is a rush to buy the new operating system from Bill Gates’ Microsoft. I know, I know. It is supposed to be pretty good this time round as compared to Windows Vista. But I still won’t jump on the Windows 7 bandwagon as I still have my trusty, and very safe if I may add, Ubuntu Linux distribution.

Switching to Ubuntu has meant that I have saved a lot of money. I save money not just from not having to pay for an operating system but also for all the applications that I need to get any work done. I don’t have to cough up a bundle or use illegal software to penny-pinch. I still get my usual Office suite for the usual computer-related office tasks. I still get to surf the Net, email, chat and tweet. I also get to do serious photo editing without having to buy Photoshop. I get to do all these legally without paying a cent and a lot less fear of virus attacks!

Today, schools should seriously consider going this route. I have written about this before but with the rise of cloud computing schools should even more seriously go the free route in their quest for ICT use in education. There are lots of free apps available to the teacher.

Schools that face serious budget constraints can go the Open Source route that I have done and turn to cloud computing and other web-based apps for teaching and learning. Even if you use a proprietary system like Windows or Apple’s Macintosh, free apps can be found to not only allow you to do the usual word processing and spreadsheet work but also more sophisticated learning platforms, the latest of which and much on people’s minds (mine too) is Google Wave. All you need is Web connectivity and that shouldn’t be a problem for you or you wouldn’t be reading this.

Cloud computing also means that schools will not have to purchase Office suites too. Sophisticated learning platforms can be had for free. All you need is just server space which is not very expensive. Give it a shot and if you really have no idea where to begin to get your free apps fixes, I recommend that you visit ZaidLearn. Zaid‘s crazy about free software and he has been most helpful in compiling them all on his blog. Take a look at it and you will find yourself all the happier from it.