Chairman of Constitutional Court, Prof. Dr. Mahfud MD, S.H., S.U., said that Indonesian education currently does not make people smart. The education that is applied in various educational institutions only educates people to think intelligently, not giving character education. This caused moral and ethical decadence among Indonesian community.
“Currently, education policy does not make people smart but only make people clever,” he said on Monday (17/9) in the first lecture for new students of graduate programme of UGM at Grha Sabha Pramana (GSP). In year 2012/2013, UGM admitted as many as 4.233 new students for S2, S3, and specialist programmes.
Mahfud said that smart and clever are two different things. Cleverness relies only on the strong ability of the brain to analyse one subject rationally while smartness is the meeting point of the sharp mind, character and heart.
“What happened was that education only makes people clever, creating education waste with products that only burden the nation,” he explained.
In the past few decades, he continued, Indonesia education seemed only to grant certificates and academic titles. Because these two are still the benchmarking to get a formal status in government agencies, it is no wonder that many dare to do the odds just to get certificates and academic titles.
“Many abuses of ethics have occured, because what is sought for is a certificate, not smartness,” Mahfud said.
Further Mahfud said that every university has to build academic norms, enhance academic tradition and support actitivities that can strengthen professionalism and ethics. Those three have to run in line to reinforce scientific ethics in the development of ethical education. “Its development should be conducted as strongly, too, because the root of all problems is the management of education that goes off the track of the ethical values as stipulated in the Law. So, currently what happened was a kind of buy and sell process,” he said.
Previously, Rector of UGM, Prof. Dr. Pratikno, M.Soc., Sc., in his remarks said that education does not only consist of knowledge and skills, but it relates with morality, ethics, and national character.
In his opinion, the problem with Indonesian education is not the less clever individuals but less clever nation. Education should not only make people but also the nation smart. “Thus, UGM is committed in not only making individuals but also the nation smart in order to become a dignified, sovereign and respected country in the world,” he described.