Let ‘OSPEK’ Return to its Khittah

School break will be over soon. It means the euphoria of going back to school is started. In few days, students are getting busy preparing their school days and going back to campus. One of the traditions is having an orientation week, or popular known as ‘ospek’.

In general, ‘ospek’ aims at introducing newly admitted first year students into their new campus atmosphere academically, socially and culturally. It means that there are such process-oriented activities in which later they will have a clear depiction about academic environment, social life and cultural differences.

Governmental Reaction Towards Multiethnicity in Indonesia

by 

Virgiawan Adi & Widya Kusu

Multiethnic as one component of national identity is complex problem which remains unsolved. The complexity here means a result of number ethnic group and race amongst the nation. From Sabang to Merauke, we can see that Indonesia has around 700 ethnic groups (Tilaar, 2007, p.xvii) where each ethnic group has different social and cultural activity. Of course, the government sees this phenomenon as a trigger to disunity or tribalism in which the fanatics to their own ethnic may create prejudice (Tilaar, 2007, p.xxv) and conflict. As long as we concern, since its independence day around 67 years ago government has created many policies to carry this nation from that aforementioned issue. One big question is then raised up. How does the government react towards this multiethnic phenomenon from time to time? 

Indonesia Mengajar: A Program for Social Justice in Education

Social justice for the whole people of Indonesia. This is the fifth principle of our ideology, Pancasila. This principle is symbolized by the image of rice paddy and cotton which means that every single person shares the same happiness which emphasizes an egalitarian relationship for majority and minority groups. This idea was basically from our founding father, the first president – Soekarno. He encouraged Indonesian people to have equality in many aspects such as education. Since the very beginning of our nation’s independence, the principle of social justice in education was elaborated in the constitution, Undang-Undang Dasar (UUD) 1945. For example, UUD 1945 article 30 emphasizes a national education system in which “Each citizen has the right to an education”. Unfortunately, this principle remains distant, since the right to education is only for those who afford to buy it, while the others, who cannot afford it, can only peek in and see the class interactions from outside the windows, like the main character in the movie “Denias”. This is symbolic of many other Deniases in remote areas spreading from Sabang to Merauke who have a passion for studying and are intelligent but cannot afford these opportunities. Do they deserve an inferior education? Do only Javanese people merit a good education? No.

I Let my Orphanage Students to speak

Every kid needs to speak up and every teacher needs to listen. This idea is clearly the emphasis in Campano’s (2007) article “Honoring Student Stories”. This “kernel” of idea leads to a rapid popcorn explosion of questions. How do you get those kids to speak about their feelings? How do you invite them? How do you support them?

Enhancing Professional Growth of Pre-service Teachers in Indonesia: An Adoption of the U.S. Professional Development School

1. Introduction

Pre-service teachers are long term investment and asset in educational context. They are prepared to be professional teachers to respond poor quality in education. They function as agent of change in society to reform education better. In the forthcoming years, they occupy themselves as teachers who fill the retired teacher’ positions. They hold great responsibility in which education demands more to solve unanswered problems. They are asked to widen their knowledge, skills and abilities by conducting field experiences. Just like in the US, pre-service teachers in Indonesia also need to accomplish field experiences. Despite of some similarities, field experiences in the US and Indonesia are different in many ways. I assume that field experiences in the US have better perspectives and practices than in Indonesia. The US has implemented Professional Development School (PDS) approach, in which this approach has ideal characteristics of teacher education programs, strong policy which creates relation between universities and schools seen from the worldwide perspective. In this paper, I adopt the PDS model to enhance the pre-service teacher’s professionalism in Indonesia. 

No Child Left Behind: An Act of Good and Bad

Since the federal government issued No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, many pros and cons spread among the nation. This arguable issue, of course, triggers not only the federal concerns but also local and parents. Some may leave question, why should it be nationalized schooling system? What is the aim for having the system? An article of “Power and Control at the State and National Level by Joy Spring” drives me to an idea of ‘A Nation at Risk 1983’ about quality of the educational system’ (Spring, 2008, p.226). I did not understand what the quality of education system that the nation mean until I watched ABC TV video entitled ‘Master Teacher’. Some scenes lead me to questions. How could a grade four student not understand the word ‘out’? How could the girl write ‘betaus’ instead of ‘because’? Indeed, these scenes opened my eyes about the reasons of No Child left Behind. However, some still refute the Act and others show their agreement. By making a clear line on the positive and negative points on funding, academic standard and assessment, I will bring this paper into concise conclusion.

Charter Schools: No One Size Fits All

Since the first time the idea proposed by Ray Budde in 1970, charter schools become hot topic to be discussed. These schools attract parents’ interests. It is fairly easy to understand that parents, who want better life for their kids, feel very ambivalent towards the school choice. Thus, this idea triggers pros and cons spread among the society. By describing positive and negative points on benefits and drawbacks, I will bring this discussion into concise conclusion.