THE GROWTH OF ILLITERACY OF LITERATI

A Big Thread towards Education in Indonesia

How do I know what I think until I see what I say? Yes, it is totally true!!! And it has been once queried by E. M. Foster. This simple question has a very deep meaning lies behind every word. No one denies that writing is a representative of our thought. We will know about the characteristics of authors through their writing. And writing has a very big influence towards the development of civilization of a country. The population of Indonesia that has reached 234.2 million by 2010, is a very big number that make everything more complicated including education. The government along with 3,017 universities has tried to produce more educated people, however, problems still come up on the surface related to education system and the output. Good result in the national examination cannot guarantee the success of the students. Moreover, it has become a public secret that there are many teachers who would like to help the students in doing the test. Money also has crucial rule in this case that makes many rich underestimate the system. Therefore, it has been clear that the huge number of universities in Indonesia is not the proof that there is a fast development of the intelligent people in this country. Shocking evidences will never be late to be the headline news in every media when the national examination has over. Many parents will be depressed with the condition where their children could not pass the examination. Hundreds or even millions students cry and even there will be student who commit suicide just because of their failure in doing the final examination. The curriculum that has been constructed is not suitable for such system, where in one hand the teacher is free to construct the curriculum locally; on the other hand the examination is still nationally. It is totally inappropriate system run in this country. How education will run well if the system hardly to follow, even looks like impossible.

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This system, of course, will result to the output and has negative impact to the future education in Indonesia. This phenomenon tells us that there is no characteristic education at school which will lead to the submersion of critical thinker that should be reached when they go to university. There are many evidences that show us about that, for example is the widespread of plagiarism. No one denies that plagiarism is getting more and more in these days, even in big universities such as UGM, UI, and Unpar. Almost everyone knows about the news that some lecturers there did the plagiarism, although it is hard to believe. Plagiarism, in fact, is the mirror of the characteristics of the plagiarist. Someone will never plagiarize others ideas if they have good characteristics. This situation is actually not a brand new for everyone who realizes the fact of education system in Indonesia. A. Chaedar Alwasilah (ACA) mentioned this activity using one term, academic theft (2010:27). How could educated people steal others ideas if they have good characteristic? ACA, in this book, also discussed many things about writing as it is a place where plagiarism can be detected. Therefore, talking about plagiarism means that we are talking about writing. In these pages ACA has clearly mentioned about the education failure in Indonesia, especially concerning to writing skills that, of course, relates to plagiarism. On page 12 ACA wrote the research result on writing in American colleges, i.e. Krashen (1984) stated that there are five reasons lies behind skilled writers. First of all is they did more expository writing in high school; second, they were required to do more writing in high school; third, they did pleasure reading when younger; fourth, they read the newspaper more; and fifth is that they had more books and newspaper in the home. I personally agree with the result, and it also can be seen in Indonesia. We can easily find the beginning of the lost of students reading and writing habits. Based on my point of view, the change of Algemeene Middelbare School (AMS) to be SMU in 1943 is the start of this situation, which is named with a vicious circle by ACA
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(2010:12). In AMS the students had to read 25 literary books, and now we can see that there is 0 book that becomes compulsory for them to read. Based on the Taufiq Ismail snapshot (Suara
Muhammadiyah, 2002) , it has been revealed the number of books read by SMU students in

some other developed countries. Senior high school students in America read 32 titles in three years, meanwhile, in Japan and Swiss just 15 books, and in Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam just read 5-7 books during the years. This evidence, which was the result of interviewing hundreds students graduated from 13 countries, has reminded us the importance of the education system as it is the reflection of the output and it will determine the future of a nation. Reading has a very big role towards writing skill. Therefore it is hardly possible to be a skilled writer without being a good reader. Good reader means a critical reader. Without being critics in reading, the reader would not be a critical thinker and eventually, it can be guaranteed that it would be impossible to be a good writer. In line with ACAs opinion, Ajib Rosidi in his book entitled BUS, BIS, BAS: Berbagai Masalah Bahasa Indonesia (2010:59) stated that nowadays, the influence of books is not the same as the period of pre-war. This statement is the reflection of the change of AMS to be SMU which also changed its curriculum, especially in reading and writing. Lets take a look on the difference between AMS and SMU in the case of teaching writing. In AMS, there were 36 meetings to teach writing, and during the time, the students were asked to write, at least one short story in a week, it means that they had 108 stories in three years. Whereas, in SMU there are 6 meetings only to teach writing, it is one-sixth compared to AMS (Kompas, 2009). This situation has also been written in this book, entitled Writing is Neglected in Our School. ACA also stated some obstacles why intellectuals lack, even lost of writing skills in this era (2010:11-12). First, it is due to the fact that academics spend their time mostly for doing routine work and tasks. Second, they think that they cannot earn their lives by writing. And third, they think that this situation is not their fault, rather it is because of the education system
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that has produced them with unsatisfactory reading habit. This situation shows us about how intellectuals characteristics in Indonesia. No creativity, no productivity. They have no critical thinking that is needed to write. Being a writer means being a critical reader and critical thinker. Then, they have to be able to tie everything in coherent sentences as the reflection of their thought. ACAs opinion informed us that the failure of education in Indonesia is not a big issue anymore as the situation has supported it. Thousands of Literature and Language graduate students do not guarantee that there will be the development of good writers. That is why I feel brave enough to say The Growth of Illiteracy of Literati as the title. Based on ACAs survey in 1999 (2010:24), it has been known that the most difficult skill to learn is writing, 58.1 %, followed by speaking, listening and reading which is 23.6%, 19.3% and 5.4% respectively. However, it does not mean that writing cannot be taught. The foremost important issue to discuss is about the way and the time as it has been stated by ACA on page 19. Parents as the first educator for their children have a very important role, it is their responsibility to develop their children skill in writing as early as possible. Apart from this, actually the result of ACAs survey has a big question as reading is recognized to be the easiest skill to learn. Since reading becomes the basic of good writer, it becomes a weird thing then. This situation indicates that the teaching of reading is not to teach the students to be a critical reader. Teaching reading is not merely about answering the questions provided and filling the blanks. However, it should be more than that. A big responsibility lies behind the reading lecturer and it will be continued by writing lecturer. Writing has a very big role in the development of civilization as I have said at the first paragraph, and it also indicates the creativity and productivity of a person. However, this problem seems to be very complicated as the government itself and the institutions do not support with the facilities, for example, the library. The easiest fact to see is UPIs library. At a
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glance, the luxurious building will give us a very good image about the books and other facilities inside. But it will change as we go inside and look the situation there. The collection of the books is very limited and the computer to use as online library either. Concerning about writing, it can be seen clearly that even lecturers who are considered to be intellectuals are far from productivity. This phenomenon has also been known from the competition bequest program from Directorate General of Higher Education

(http://suaramerdeka.com/). In the last four years, Directorate General of Higher Education has funded 5,383 competition bequests, fundamental bequest, and other kinds of bequest. However, only 2% of it that can be reached, and it is only about 108 writings that had been received. This becomes thread to the development of education in Indonesia, where they who are considered to be intellectuals have no high motivation to be productive, at least in writing. The sentence that has been queried by E. M. Foster becomes a basic thought of our attitude. We will never know about ones thought or ones saying until we see and read it, even ours. Writing is not as easy as speaking. It needs many skills to write ideas in a good way. It will remain tens, hundreds, or even thousands of years and it can be read by everyone live in the future. Writing can change everything, it also can differ between the civilized and uncivilized societies. Writing should be improved as early as possible; otherwise the threat towards the education in Indonesia will be getting bigger and bigger. ACA, in this book, explains many things related to writing, started from the way in the teaching and learning process, until the issue of plagiarism which has been popular in any level of education in Indonesia. Even, it is often neglected as some institution think that it will help them in some cases. This is really the bad-mirror of education in Indonesia. Many of undergraduate students do not write their research (skripsi) by themselves, which has been popular with the term ndandakke, ask somebody to make for them. In line with this, ACA states that this case is a kind of deliberate plagiarism (2010:27). He writes that deliberate
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plagiarism takes place when we ask somebody to write an essay or a paper for us or we use somebodys essay or paper and claim it to be ours. Even, portfolio of scholarly paper which should be collected as certification of teachers and lecturers is still questioned. It has been a public secret that many of them did deliberate plagiarism (http://joko.staff.umm.ac.id/). This condition is, again, a really big thread towards education in Indonesia. How the education will be better if those kind of things run everywhere without any prevention and improvement? Moreover, it is done by educated people, teachers and lecturers. No other things to do but improve the education system and its regulation, otherwise, we will be left behind more from other developing countries. All in all, ACAs book, Language, Culture, and Education: A Portrait of Contemporary Indonesia is really worth reading for everyone, especially to those who concern on education. Then, the steps to make everything better and improved should be started as soon as possible. It this book ACA has stated the general but complicated issue related to the condition of education in Indonesia. The better education, the better society will be. It can be guaranteed that the process to be developed country is started from the education; in this case, writing result is also a mirror of the people, it is based on whether they plagiarize or not. The productivity and creativity will be go along with critical thinking which is easily can be detected from writing. Therefore, the teaching and learning of writing should be improved as it is the start of a deep critical thinking.

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