Education Limited by Economics
Talking about education will never be endless, especially education in Indonesia. Indonesia? Our country is indeed large, natural resources and human resources are many and varied, but the bitter reality that is seen in it is that not everyone in this country has adequate education standards. Because it turns out there are many complaints from this nation that highlight the problem of education in Indonesia. In my own opinion, although efforts to improve and develop education are always held, but seen from several factors, the quality of education is still low. Education still does not reach the community with lower economic average because there are still many underprivileged children who have not received proper education. Therefore, the distribution of education in disadvantaged areas needs to be improved so that the dropout rate will also be reduced by economic factors. Here I take the example of education on the island of Madura.
The island of Madura is geographically very strategically located between the Java Sea and the Madura Strait which holds a lot of potential. This island according to the Indonesian National Government is one of the residency areas in the East Java provention government environment. The island known as Garam Island is located northeast of Java with coordinates of about seven degrees south latitude and between 112 and 114 degrees east longitude consisting of several large and small islands. Madura consists of four districts, namely Bangkalan, Sampang, Pamekasan and Sumenep. Madura is the largest island surrounded by smaller islands, such as Puteran, Sapudi, Raas, Kangean, Sapeken and other smaller islands of more than 100, both inhabited and non-inhabited. Most of these small islands are in the eastern region. Various government efforts to optimize the potential of this island have been made. One of them is by building the Suramadu bridge. According to Presidential Decree No. 79 of 2003 concerning the purpose of the construction of the Suramadu bridge is to further enhance development in the Madura area, as an effort to spur the expansion of industrial areas, housing, and other sectors, as well as encourage community economic growth by connecting the islands of Java and Madura. These goals can be achieved if there are creative human resources (HR) and have an optimal level of education. Education is very influential on the progress of an area because education prints good quality human resources (HR) in terms of spiritual, intelligence, and skill.
Improving the quality of human resources through education can reduce poverty because with education can increase employment opportunities, reduce income inequality and welfare and productivity of the poor. Optimal education is strongly supported by the availability of educational facilities, one of which is educational facilities in the form of High Schools (SMA) in each district in Madura. People who have gone through high school education will certainly have more careful and accurate thoughts and considerations in carrying out various jobs in all fields. Therefore, an adequate number of high schools is needed to accommodate the increasing number of Madurese people. While education in Madura precisely in the archipelago is not effective because the teachers who teach on the island from the city are not responsible with their students, because the teacher comes only during exams, and everyday the teacher who gives the material is only junior and senior high school graduates whose diplomas are also buy without having proper knowledge given to students. The lack of teaching staff adds to the long list of suffering of education in the interior. Teachers are the most important component that must exist in the teaching-learning process besides the students themselves. Not infrequently when students are excited to come to school, they must be disappointed because there are no teachers who come. The distribution of teachers between rural and urban areas is inversely proportional, in urban areas there is an excess of teacher staff, whereas in the interior teachers are still lacking. In the interior a teacher must teach two or three classes at a time. In general, teachers are reluctant to be placed in rural areas because of the heavy terrain and often late salaries and far from families.
The consequence that arises from the lack of government attention to the condition of education in the interior of Madura is the high number of children dropping out of school. You could say this is one form of success of the 9-year compulsory education program. The distance of school, the absence of teaching staff and the number of children who have to help their parents' work, that is largely a factor causing children to drop out of school. Education and success seem to have become two sides of a coin that can not be separated anymore. Someone who gets a good education will easily achieve success which of course will lead them to prosperity. This theory certainly applies in all regions including in the interior. The lack of qualified human resources in the interior also indirectly impedes the development of their region. As a result, more and more disturbances have arisen between urban areas and those in the interior. The majority of the rural population is poor without education, of course it will get poorer. Rural communities, which are generally only poorly educated, must be prepared to compete with migrants who have more advanced thinking and knowledge than them. Regional wealth which should be used to prosper the surrounding community is being exploited by the migrants. Local people may become second-class people who only get a share in menial work, such as being a coolie. If this continues to be ignored it could lead to social jealousy which ultimately leads to disintegration.
The government should have a commitment to distribute educational assistance (Imbal Swadaya, Block Grant, etc.) to schools in accordance with the disbursement that is disbursed and do not let the assistance provided by the government stop at the bureaucratic level. The government provides attractive rewards in order to motivate professional teachers to take root in remote areas. In addition, the welfare of teachers who teach in rural areas must also be considered. The establishment of a one-roof school is a good initiation to spread education in the interior especially in the form of islands. The One Roof School Program consists of elementary and junior high schools and even high schools, so that islands or inland areas that do not yet have a school do not need to go to other areas to receive education. One Roof Schools can be a solution to improve the quality of education, especially schools that experience a shortage of teachers, as has happened in some rural areas. Besides the inclusion of NGOs and the desire of individuals to establish pilot schools or just teaching reading, writing and counting can help overcome the problem of education in rural areas. Lifia Ma’rifatussholichah.