In Indonesia, there is currently a deep interest in the “Sekolah Berstandar Internasional” or SBI concept. “Sekolah Berstandar Internasional” can be translated as “School of International Standard”. The idea of the SBI is being pushed by the Indonesian education ministry, DINAS, in an effort to upgrade the quality of Indonesia’s schools. It realizes the importance of Indonesia not falling behind internationally because of the poor quality of education offered in its schools.

DINAS itself is conscious of the rising popularity of schools in Indonesia that exist so that students can take international examinations like the IGCSE and the IB. However, it is concerned that such schools may orient Indonesians to look out of Indonesia and this may have an effect on its national development goals. Furthermore, it can be argued that such schools tend to cater to an elite minority belonging to the upper middle class and middle class. Such schools tend to be beyond the means of the average Indonesian who sent their children to the government schools. It is perhaps to cater to this lower income group, and to allay fears of the creation of an elite group of Indonesians with one foot out of Indonesia,  that DINAS has proposed the creation of SBIs. In official DINAS documents, the SBIs are supposed to be staffed by local teachers with a local curriculum that emphasized quality  teaching and learning that is on par with the rest of the world yet rooted in Indonesia.

However, private schools in Indonesia have been looking elsewhere for their model. In this search many schools have looked at the Singapore model as the example to be copied. Singapore-style schools have sprouted up with the typical Singapore emphasis on high stakes written examinations. “Educational consultants” from Singapore have pushed for a transplanting of the Singapore school system upon Indonesia without a thought or understanding of the real needs of Indonesia because little thinking is required by such an approach. There is also an almost arrogant assumption by some of these educational consultants that what works in Singapore, will work just as well with minor only minor tweaking.

As an example, Singapore school textbooks which are in English, are being used for lessons in such Singapore-style schools in Indonesia, never mind if the level of English language competency is not at the same level as Singapore. Not quite a few of these educational consultants have of course ingeniously argued that Indonesian students need to learn English like Singapore students because English is needed to be on par with the rest of the world.

Some even argue that Indonesian students need English to enroll in foreign educational institutions, which is far from true. They, of course, notably forget to mention that countries like Japan, Germany have done well enough without English at the earlier stages of school. Not too mention also that in Singapore you do have the environment that you need to learn English unlike in Indonesia where it is hard to come by, even through TV!

In addition, if the goal of DINAS is to produce good quality education, written examinations do not guarantee this. Singapore-style high stakes written examinations only turn schools into examination preparation centers, which are what Singapore schools really are in general. Students can still do well in such examinations even without deep understanding of the subject matter because much of such examinations require only rote-learning of facts and mechanical operations.

Indonesians would also do well to remember that even in Singapore there is already an acknowledgment to move away from this “examination-centeredness” in its schools. Yet, Indonesians are being peddled with the same outmoded Singapore approach. If Indonesians keep following these outdated approaches to education, they will always be playing catch up when they have every opportunity to jump to a higher level and a better approach to education more suited to the needs of their country.

The IGCSE is a popular internationally recognized examination that more schools in Southeast Asia are opting to participate in. There is nothing wrong with this because there are some real advantages of taking the examinations. The most important perhaps is that it is universally-recognized as an entrance examinations for furthering one’s education especially in the English-speaking world. This is in large part due to its parent examination syndicate, the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) syndicate, having been around for a long time in this area. It is also due to the relative security and impartiality of the examinations as compared to local examinations in some Southeast Asia where “irregularities” during and after examinations is far from irregular. Participating in the IGCSE also means that the schools concerned would have to put a greater emphasis on the English Language. This would force the students in the school to pick up what is often regarded as the international language for commerce and science.

However, it would be a mistake for schools in countries in Southeast Asia, like Indonesia and Vietnam, and even in China, to believe that taking such an examination will make them a good school with an international curriculum. Overseas educational consultants from elsewhere have been selling the idea that the IGCSE will change them into good schools plus they also pander to the gullibility of parents in those countries about what is a good education.

All examinations, not only the IGCSE, that have the nett effect of schools getting teachers to only teach to the examinations is bad. Such an approach to school will not result in schools becoming good schools but only good examination preparation centers. While this may secure for the students placings in higher educational institutions, what is left behind through under-emphasis is the other skills which are deemed to be more important for anyone to succeed in the 21st century. The dictum, “what is not tested will not learned”, will come true. Therefore schools who still do want to take advantage of the IGCSE must also be aware of this pitfall of becoming nothing more than just examination prepartion centers. They must also be wary of educational consultants who only peddle international examinations and little else.

Singapore’s reputation as a country with a very good education system has spawned many educational consultancies to meet the demand for Singapore-style education in neighboring countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and China. This is true in the light of the previous financial crisis that affected countries like Indonesia badly. The financial crisis has meant that where Indonesian parents once would readily send their children to Singapore for a “quality”, Singapore education, today they would prefer to have their children remain in Indonesia and experience the Singapore education system back home in Indonesia itself. This has led to the mushrooming of private schools in Indonesia and other neighboring countries that claim to follow the Singapore system.

Unfortunately, quite a few of these educational consultancies have also mushroomed quickly to meet this demand for Singapore-style education or schools. It is unfortunate because many of these only feed on the gullibility of the clients. Most of their foreign clients only have a hazy idea of what a good school is about except that since the schools in Singapore is regarded as good so they want something akin to that of Singapore. The educational consultancies from Singapore have resorted to the easy way out and sell their idea of Singapore-style schools as schools with international examinations and Singapore school textbooks.

What has happened is the transfer of these things with little thought to the prevailing conditions of the host country. Singapore textbooks are being used when they are more suitable for the GCE O levels examinations that Singapore’s students sit for rather than the IGCSE that students in Indonesia are more likely to sit for. It doesn’t matter if the textbooks are for students taking English as a first language rather than as a second language. The Singapore marking system is adopted although the requirements of the IGCSE differs from the GCE O levels. Singapore schools’ examination paper format is adopted rather than one more suitable for the IGCSE. Force fitting is the Singapore way it seems with some educational consultancies from Singapore.

This has resulted in great confusion. It shows also just how unprofessional such Singapore consultancies have been. They have not even bothered to find out the differences between the two countries. They remind me of Procrustes of Greek mythology who would either stretch his victims on a bed-like rack or cut off their excess length to fit the rack. The rack is always correct.