My eldest daughter and I made it back from our trip to Jogya. She clearly loves the idea of living and studying there, while I keep wondering about how much this is going to cost me and also hoping that she gets into the school that is her first choice. Jogya clearly has grown enormously in the 16 years since I was last there. I’m not sure that it holds much interest for me personally at this point in my life, but my daughter certainly likes the big city atmosphere.
Now on to some whining about Indonesia. I’m working on a post for my Bali Expat series about the Whining Expat. Here’s my whine on the government meddling with international schools and doing their best to interfere with profits for the hospitality industry.
I was reading a post the other day on the Jakartass website about national exams (one of my favorite topics to rant about) and I followed a link to read an article about international schools in Indonesia to see if it would clear up some of my confusion over what the government is doing to international schools here. The article succeeded in clearing up very little, but I did get to read a great quote from Bambang Indrianto, the secretary of the directorate general for primary and secondary education at the National Education Ministry. Commenting on the requirement for international schools to provide religion, civics and Bahasa Indonesian classes to all Indonesian students in Indonesian, he said: “Indonesian students at the international schools have their constitutional right to obtain a proper education and they will lack pride as Indonesian citizens if they cannot speak Bahasa Indonesia, do not learn further about their religion and know nothing about the nation and its political system.”
In case it’s not clear, what I find great about this quote is the “proper education” comment as well as the lacking pride reference. If Pak Indrianto wants to provide Indonesian children with a proper education, he might get rid of the national exam, get professional development for teachers so that they can develop their skills in their teaching areas, train administrators on what it is that constitutes a “good” teacher, and provide some funds for schools so that kids don’t have to sit in dirty, stiflingly hot, overcrowded classrooms. Students will be more like to have genuine pride in their country if they see some evidence that the bureaucrats in charge of their lives as students are actually doing something to improve the educational system.
Then, on to a totally different subject, April 1 has arrived and the luxury tax on liquor is scheduled to end today. People in the hotel and hospitality industry have been anxiously awaiting this and were expecting a drop in alcohol prices which would boost their profits with the many thirsty tourists and expats in Indonesia, but in a brilliant move, the government is adding an excise tax to liquor to make up for the money that they will lose from the end of the luxury tax. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the coming months, especially with the high tourist season just a few months away.
Just another day in paradise.
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