Editorial Desk

The school of corruption
19-06-2011

The recent shocking revelation of widespread “teacher-sponsored” cheating in Indonesian national examinations and the way authorities have handled the reports illustrate how, where and why the corrupt mentality has been nurtured.

The reported massive cheating has also cast big shadows of doubt over the exceptionally high passing rates nationally, which the government planned to use to measure the success of its national education programme that saps 20 per cent of the state budget.

The national exam system was designed to improve the standard of education nationwide, from ill-equipped schools in the impoverished Papua hinterland to affluent and well equipped schools in Jakarta. But widespread cheating suspected to have occurred throughout the country every year means the government must now return to the drawing board to rethink its well-intentioned, albeit controversial, policy.

In Surabaya, housewife Siami became an “icon of honesty” after courageously sounding the alarm with Mayor Tri Rismaharini and subsequently had her whole family evicted by irate parents who accused her of tainting the school’s reputation. Siami’s sin was apparently retelling the mayor her son Alif’s story that a teacher had asked him, as the smartest child in the sixth grade, to pass around the answers to the tests that a teacher had prepared for the whole class.

In Jakarta, cheating graced media headlines when a Pesanggrahan 6 state primary school pupil’s parents filed a case with the National Commission for Children Protection after the school management refused to look into it.

Particularly flabbergasting is the schools’ and government bureaucrats’ tendency to try to cover up their dishonest practices after the scams went public, simply to try to make things look good. The underlying message is that students learn that goals justify means at school.

Pundits have linked the dishonesty instilled in our innocent children with the well-known corrupt mentality of our leaders, from top politicians to clerics, government bureaucrats and educators.

The silence of the public about this cheating also adds credence to perceptions that corrupt practices have become an “acceptable” norm here. While the loathed corrupt, authoritarian New Order regime under Suharto is now 13 years behind us, corruption has only become more widespread.

Worse, law enforcement against corrupt people often defies a sense of justice, and thus fails to serve as a deterrent. Many corruption convicts, particularly those who are politically wired, breathe fresh air after short spells in prison thanks to the government’s generosity in granting them remissions or conditional release for “humanitarian” reasons. Not to mention special privileges that allow them to travel while serving detention, as in the case of former tax official Gayus H. Tambunan.

That’s why corruption convicts are unashamed about flashing their big smiles in public, rather than showing remorse.

If dishonesty is being taught at our schools, hope for the ongoing crusade against corruption is remote.

asianewsnet.net