UNCEN students organisation condemns the education situation in Papua

JUBI, 20 July, 2012

The Executive Board of the Cenderawasih University students organisation, UNCEN BEM, believes that the decline in education in Papua is evidence of the failure of the Indonesian government, in particular its Education Service.

BEM has called on the provincial administration to pay serious attention to this issue. It believes that manipulations have conceal the failings of the administration.

Nason Ngelia, the organisation’s head of public relations, said: ‘All the top-level personnel in the education sector throughout Papua should be sacked.’

He went on to say that in kampungs everywhere, the teachers can’t be bothered to do any teaching. They even allow students who have not reached the right standard to pass the grade. ‘Most government employees do nothing all day but they still receive their salaries. They don’t do any teaching but keep busy organising projects,’ said Leo Himan, a member of Uncen BEM.

‘We have no confidence in the people working in the education service at the SMPTN unit at Uncen. There are two problems that we cannot accept. The national testing is not appropriate for Papuans because the education system here is different from that in the rest of Indonesia. The education system here needs to be overhauled,’ said Yoan Alfredo Wambitman, chairman of the BEM branch at the Faculty of Technology.

In its press release, Uncen BEM appended the results of the Survey of Political and Economic Risk Consultants (PERC) which states that the quality of education in Indonesia is inferior to education elsewhere in Asia and is at the bottom of the list of the twelve countries in Asia; it is even worse that Vietnam. ‘This relates to education in Java. If the situation in Java is that bad, how much worse it is in other places,’ said Nason.

Recently, the Jayapura branch of the Alliance of Independent Journalists published the results of a two-week research project in eight districts in Papua. The heading of the section on education is ‘It’s the same old song which everyone keeps singing’. So who is to blame?’

BEM called on the candidate in the election for governor of Papua to give top priority to the question of education in this the land of Cenderawasih..

[Translated by TAPOL]