TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Our education world is being put to test. So is the administration of Joko Widodo and Jusuf Kalla.

On Wednesday last week, the Constitutional Court (MK) ruled that it rejected the review of Article 6 paragraph (1) of the Law Number 20 of 2003 on National Education System related to the compulsory education program for children between the age of 7 to 15 years or the 9 year compulsory education program.

MK considered that the policy was already correct.

The judicial review was proposed by dozens of civilian organizations allied under the Network of Indonesian Education Observer, among others by Executive Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (Indonesia’s biggest Islamic organization) and the Indonesian Teacher Association (PGRI).

According to them, the 9-year compulsory education hinders people’s constitutional rights to get proper education, a right guaranteed by Article 28B paragraph (2) and Article 28C paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution.

The 9-year compulsory education program is also considered to be discriminative because children between the age of 16 – 18 years old, in line with Law Number 23 of 2002 on Children Protection, do not get their rights.

In addition, the 9-year compulsory education program, from primary school to junior high school is not relevant anymore.

The workforce market now requires that the minimum education is high school graduate.

MK’s ruling does not support the programs of Jokowi-JK administration.

The pledge made by Jokowi-JK in its Nawa Cita is to ‘improve the quality of life of Indonesian people through the 12 year compulsory education program free of charge.

Another pledge: "to improve people’s productivity and competitiveness at the international market by building a number of science and techno park at polytechnics and vocational schools with infrastructures of the latest technology.”

For this program, the Ministry of Education and Culture said that it has allocated Rp7.9 trillion to support program the 12-year compulsory education program in 2016.

This 12 year compulsory education program is the continuation from the previous government’s program, which was called the universal education program.

This program gives opportunities to the people to enjoy quality education that is facilitated by the government although the funding is from central government, regional governments, and the public.

The target by then was that participation level of junior high school would reach 97 percent by 2020.

What really matters is that the 12-year compulsory education program leads to the rise of the standard of quality of Indonesian workforce, which affects the economic development.

Indonesian workforce must be ready to compete, both at home and abroad.

If Indonesian workforce wants to be valued highly in other countries, we must improve the quality.

Equally, if we want to stop the influx of workforce from China or other countries, we must improve the quality of our workforce.

And one of the ways is through education.

The pledge made by Jokowi – JK of the 12-year compulsory education program must be supported and we must demand its realization, and it must not be weakened as ruled by the MK instead.

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