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Bhinneka Tunggal Ika or “unity in diversity” has been Indonesia’s official motto since its independence in 1945.
It reflects Indonesia’s commitment to create peace within the local, national,
and international societies despite race and ethnicity, socioeconomic,
cultural, and religious differences. Since Indonesia has 250 million people who
speak more than 300 different languages, it is crucial to engage them in
implementing tolerance and solidarity while keeping the traditional culture and
values alive. Today, this population is dominated by youth, and the sustainable
development of Indonesia lies in their hands.
Globally, this
phenomenon known as a “youth bulge” or “demographic dividend” propels national
productivity. Most people define it as the total population of a country
dominated by people between 15 and 64 years old. People in this age group are
in what social scientists call the productive age. According to the DBS Asian
Insight Conference, in 2010, there were 60-70% of people in the productive age
range in Indonesia. This percentage will reach its peak in 2035 where 80–85% of
the total population will be considered productive. As a result, the Indonesian
ex-President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, believed that in 2030 Indonesia will
become the nation with the 10th biggest economy in the world.
Considering
these circumstances, demographic dividend can potentially boost the growth and
development of Indonesia. However, if this potential is not supported by high
quality human resources a reach toward global competitiveness, the
opportunity demographic bonus provide will be wasted. According to a World Bank
Survey, 56% of young Indonesians reported that they feel poorly prepared to
enter the workforce in terms of skills. Because of this, 22% of Indonesians between 15 and 24 years old are unemployed. This was threatened due to
the opening of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in the 1st January 2016 where
it provided the free flow of goods, services, investments, and skilled labor across the Southeast Asia region. Since
English became the official language of AEC, language skill also appeared to be
an issue in Indonesia, with 48% of employers saying their skilled employees
lacked English language proficiency. Compared to its neighboring countries,
Indonesian’s English proficiency is still lagging. The Education First (EF)
English Proficiency Index noted that Indonesia’s English skill in the Asia
region is ranked eighth, while Singapore ranked first and Malaysia second.
Today, although Malaysia reaches the second highest rank in the index, they
still put a big effort to maintain their achievement by conducting national
teacher training programs in advanced levels. Furthermore, Thailand has also
showed their commitment to improve English skills by making a new standard of
proficiency, as well as enrich their competency by learning a new language,
Bahasa Indonesia. This action indicates a great intention to enter Indonesia.
Indonesian unemployment may rise if Thai citizens, and others, begin to seek
employment in Indonesia.
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These conditions indicate language barriers might harm
national growth and require a new method of teaching. Therefore, there is a
need to manage youth bulge as soon as possible and develop students to communicate
effectively in English. This can be done by implementing English through formal
education, informal ways, and to create a conducive environment to help foster these
efforts. Concerning formal education, a teaching and learning methodology has
to be in line with the 21st century education model where students become the
center of learning activities. Teachers can shape the classroom as the venue of
sharing ideas between them and students, as well as student-to-student. This
provides a more effective learning process where students do not need to memorize
theories and become mark-oriented; they will be triggered to think critically towards
an issue and commit to addressing and solving these issues. The effectiveness
of an active learner can be seen from the learning pyramid published by the
National Training Laboratories in Bethel, Maine. This learning pyramid underscores
that students are able to get only 10% of the overall learning material taught
by lecturing and reading, while students gained 50% of material from discussion
and 75% from practice. When schools are able to combine lecture, discussion, and
practice in their method; the implementation of values and skills towards
student will be easier.
The student-centered learning method was applied in my
high school where it offered me an opportunity to live in the dormitory with
diverse students across East Java. Since I had to share a room with friends
from different backgrounds, an adjustment was needed when we faced differences related
to our habit or even dialect while having conversations. Although my friends
and I came from the same province, East Java, our dialect and manner in doing
certain activities were quite different. These differences, however, provided a
conducive environment in which to learng English due to the implementation of
English hour and English pin. During 7 to 9 pm, students have to communicate in
English. Not only that, the English pin with a sentence “Speak English to me” also
pushed students to speak in English both in the school and dormitory area. If they
were known for having a conversation in Bahasa Indonesia or Javanese, a penalty
would be given. Despite offering boarding school programs, my school also applied
International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), a curriculum
from Cambridge, in the first year and Indonesia’s own national curriculum, Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP),
the following two years. Although the learning materials provided in the IGCSE
was quite similar to the materials I learned in junior high, it still benefited
me to understand scientific terms in English as well as enrich my vocabulary. The
experience I got during a year learning international curriculum assisted me to
be globally-minded while maintaining the values of my local and national
culture. It was true that my teachers and I often spoke in English during that
time, but we were communicating in Bahasa Indonesia outside the class and during
national events. I also still held conversations in Javanese with my friends
and local people around the dormitory. These helped enhance my language ability
and served as a step toward shaping myself as a global citizen without forgetting
my origins.
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Other foreign languages implemented in my senior high
were Japanese, Mandarin, and Dutch. It was a good program to introduce students
to the basic understanding of these foreign languages. An interesting story happened
when our Dutch teacher exposed us to access "Brieffreunde.de", a communication site used by
Europeans. She targeted each of us to have at least three friends from Germany,
interact with them, and report the conversation we did by the end of each week throughout
a year. Although we only knew the basics such as greeting and other basic
conversations, helped by e-translators, this helped us knowing about other
cultures better, and facilitated the exchange of ideas, as well as increased
our confidence on having interactions with foreigners. Not only that, we also
learnt Japanese culture by making sushi, Japanese traditional food, and memorizing
Mandarin vocabularies by playing games together with our teacher.
After learning
languages in high school as well as in the campus, I further nurtured my
ability by joining an international forum. I attended Asia Pacific Urban
Forum-Youth (APUFY) conducted by the Ministry of Public Works and Housing of
Indonesian Republic in collaboration with UN HABITAT. This forum is a
particular program for achieving sustainable development agenda held in Jakarta
for two days and immediately proceeds to APUF-6 and the HABITAT III
Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting. It gathered 300 young people from 22 countries
across Asia-Pacific and exposed me to a new look on how beautiful diversity can
be. I saw this when delegates delivered their perspectives
as well as their exchanges with others of different
ethnicity, race, religion, and skin color. This program also provided a wider
range of insights and aspirations. By joining this forum, I learned the
importance of creating mutual understanding needed for effectively tackling the
diversity challenge.
Reflecting on the above experiences, improving
language competencies towards youth can be done by understanding their
character and passion before starting to implement programs in formal education.
It will also be better to increase youth participation in the learning process
rather than letting them become passive learners. When youth have already got enough
skills in school, we need to expose them into the more complex and diverse world
instead of just the local and national environment. If youth are solely attuned
to tackling language barriers within themselves, it will be easier to trigger
them in learning other skills necessary in life. This will help youth to get
access into global knowledge which in the end increases their competitiveness
in the global market.
The urgency of improving youth language proficiency increases when
Indonesia has to face challenges in attaining Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Since efforts to achieve Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) were not quite successful indicated by unequal welfare
across the nation, Indonesia needs to build partnerships at the regional,
national, and international level. Only by
having good communication, Indonesia will be able to address its concern in understanding and solving
society’s needs, wants, and problems in these forums as well as harness its
natural and human resources effectively. Therefore,
when Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono becomes optimistic that Indonesia will become a
nation with the 10th largest economy in the world by 2030, this optimism is rightly
placed and can be achieved.
Bibliography:
Oberman,
R., Dobbs, R., Budiman, A., Thompson, F., & Rossé, M. (2012). The archipelago economny: unleashing
indonesia’s potential. McKinsey Global Institute.
DBS Group
Research. (2015). DBS asian insights conference 2015. Igniting possibilities for the asia for tomorrow. Asian Insights
Office.
Outcomes report: asia-pacific urban youth assembly at
APUF-6 (APUFY). (2015). Jakarta: Ministry of Public Works and Housing
Republic of Indonesia.
