As 2015 is fast approaching, it is clear that the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals will not be completely met. In order to keep progressing, the global community must look past 2015 to envision the education goals that should be targeted. In the blog entry, “In Indonesia, Tackling Education Inequality Through Better Governance”, unequal distribution and lack of quality resources are the root problem behind education inequality. In Indonesia, the World Bank published a survey of education governance quality for 50 Indonesian districts that highlights the need for “strengthening the capacity of local governments to deliver quality education services to all children”. Somewhere in the process of carrying out schooling at the local level there is a glitch in the system, so to speak.

The blog uses a fancy chart that demonstrates the effectiveness of education as local governments are empowered:

Higher quality local education governance is associated with better education performance

The need for local empowerment is there. Without strong community ties to local schools, it is almost impossible to develop the capacity of the next generations. Different districts have such varying rates of education quality and time that it drastically impacts their development and future: “Children who fail to master basic skills are more likely to end up in an insecure, low-paid job, as compared to children who leave school equipped with the skills needed in current labor markets”. This use of schooling for economic purposes relates to our class reading of the human capital theory discussed by Robeyns. As Sen argues, education must be intrinsically valued for the purpose of the knowledge it offers and the opportunities that are opened up. Schooling to fulfill economic goals has a hidden agenda and places limited value on students; they are worth only as much as they can offer the economy and job market.

In the case of Indonesia, the UN survey has exposed the need for honest, transparent information and assessment on the country’s education system. The survey highlights how increased funding for education is essentially useless when compared to the disparities in the quality of education and the way the money is being used. The rate of return is not connecting the amount of money being invested. It would be a more effective use of time and money to focus on the local levels of schooling, because it is there where the disconnect is happening and failing to deliver to children.

I agree with the World Bank’s approach toward capacity building at the local level. These efforts must be custom fit to each community because the problems with the education vastly differ across districts. The problems occur within carrying out regulated procedures like planning and proper financing. “The big message is that strengthening the management and governance of district education systems can help narrow inequality”. To truly ensure that no child is left behind and fulfill the goals of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, measures must be made to not only increase funding because this has been identified as a symptom not the root cause of education inequality, but continue conducting surveys on the quality of education governance and focus resources on empowering the local governments. This can include but is not limited to training local government officials and teachers in local schools, and creating a dialogue between the local government and school system to connect and communicate on the problems within each community.

http://blogs.worldbank.org/education/indonesia-tackling-education-inequality-through-better-governance

This film perfectly put into words and images the ideas I have been searching to understand and describe in the last two years: Western education is not the only solution or path to live life contentedly and sustainably. One of the critiques of education in this documentary which I personally agree with is how Westerners think Western education is superior to other forms of learning, but it is not. Learning is and should be an exchange of skills and ideas, and a dialogue between people rather than formal lecture style. Modern schooling is focused on the measure of material success. However, there is more than one way to educate children and people.

Henry David Thoreau described the process of schooling as: “Education…makes a straight-cut ditch out of a free, meandering brook”. His profound insight is startlingly true. The Western system of education creates a hierarchy of knowledge, which therefore brands people who have not gone through the system as failures. One of the problems with formal schooling is the desire to create cookie-cutter versions of what is valued as knowledge. Social injustice and hierarchy are created through modern education. The film documented many cases around the world where adults and elders believed themselves to be disappointments who knew nothing because they did not go through formal schooling.

The Lamdon Model School in Ladakh, India was founded by a European (I believe she was German) woman named Heidi. Heidi’s view on education regards that children always gain something positive from school, hence the reason she helped start the Lamdon Model School. Heidi also added that the school was exactly what the community needed to “overcome poverty”. She came to Ladakh and fell in love with the people and their way of life, and decided that it needed to be improved through education. In this regards, Heidi concluded that the Ladakh people were impoverished and needed to be helped. Thus, education was linked with development where it was automatically assumed (by a foreigner) that schooling would have a progressive impact on the community. In Heidi’s eyes as an outsider looking in, the slow-moving, agricultural way of life in Ladakh did not meet their standards of adequate living.

The film interviewed several teenagers and young adults who had gone through the Lamdon Model School. All of their reactions to the impact of Western education on their community agreed that many, if not all, the children who went through the school forgot their Ladakh traditions, language, and culture. Furthermore, schools in Ladakh result in families being separated because parents believe they must send their children to school in order for them to get ahead in life: their belief is that education results in higher paying jobs. In many cases around the world this is true because education allows access to better opportunities. However, the Western system of education also changes the structure of the familial unit in many cultures. In Ladakh, several mothers described their feelings of loneliness and missing their children who had gone to the cities to find work because that was the necessary step after they received their education. They wished their children were back at home. This is an example of Western education changing the community’s concept of familial togetherness towards separateness and individuality (which are celebrated in the West, especially in America). There is a connection with becoming educated and wanting to leave to obtain work and other opportunities elsewhere. The way many Americans view education is similar to that of Heidi’s perspective. The majority of Americans believe any community can be bettered with formal education. I used to agree, however, “Schooling the World” challenged this assertion and changed my opinion.