Better education accessible

In a recent conversation with a good friend who has been a teacher for more than 20 years I was surprised to hear him talk very openly about the education industry.

This was a surprise because I had always thought of him as somebody who had very high ideals for and about education. He trained as a teacher and gained a Master's degree in education and has had a really distinguished career in teaching: heading departments and rising to become a headmaster.

He has taught on no less than four continents and is now working in Indonesia and, it looks like, he is very much enjoying his time as part of what he sees as a really vibrant and growing education industry in the country. I had always seen him as a person who saw education as a great gift and being a teacher as being a calling rather than just making money. He now though seems to have a slightly different perception.

He is seeing the spread of international curricula and teaching methods and practices and this is something that he calls the globalization of education. I am not sure whether globalization and education really work well together for me as a positive expression. There are, in my mind, some concerns and misgivings about globalization but I think I understand the general gist of what he is suggesting.

Education has certainly become more international in its flavor within Jakarta and some other cities around Indonesia. The number of international schools seems to be growing at a stunning rate. Recent reports suggest that in 2008, the Ministry of Education granted licenses to more than 200 new school projects that would include international education.

What does this mean in the field? Well, there are concerns that there are too many people getting involved in schools and perhaps that figure of 200 new school licenses is a representation of that kind of problem. It is perhaps much too easy to grant licenses. It is far more difficult to actually be able to deliver international education.

But this does not mean that good things are not happening in international education in and for Indonesia. There may be some school projects that are neither well founded nor well managed but the truth of the matter is that they will and are being found out and they will fail and fall by the wayside.

What is far more useful is the way in which a more diverse and widespread approach to education is being created for Indonesia. This seems quite appropriate when we think of the Indonesian motto Unity in Diversity. All of these successful international schools that are applying international curricula are all headed in the same direction of providing quality education and so there is a unity about them and what they are trying to do

This does, however, leave room for that diversity and diverse approaches to education. International curricula and programs of study are being applied from Australia and the United Kingdom and other countries that have an international approach to education are also being represented in Indonesia. I recently heard of a new school that will be following a Canadian curriculum. We should though recognize that nations may be represented by these curricula but there is the key internationalism to what they are doing.

These international curricula often and quite consistently address international citizenship and promote a global awareness. This may well be what my friend is referring to when he speaks of the globalization of education. This means that a truly international mind-set is being introduced and promoted through schools like this and this can only be a good thing.

Another very positive development from these kinds of schools is that they will help to develop a pool of human resources that will help education generally. Teachers that have to teach in these schools are using a very different curriculum and are learning to use different approaches to helping their students understand.

All of this means that Indonesia is getting a greater choice of what it can do educationally. The national system of education has had its critics but it is adapting and being influenced by what is happening internationally. This means that more Indonesians are getting access to a better education.

The writer is an education consultant in Sydney, Australia.

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