in memory of Ken Fernandes

I don't know why this old writing has become one of the popular post today. I wrote this as a part of assignment for my lecture Ken Fernandes who already passed away in 2009 due to the cancer. He is one of my favorite lecture during my study in Melbourne... He has opened my mind about the global injustice in this world. So, in memory of Mr Fernandes, I re-blog my old post here. (Icha) reflection a reflection ..... Many people say that education is an agent of change. Education is a machine of the development, therefore, there is no development without education. The word "education" has become a buzzword for some people doing community development. They believe that education will change the community to have a better life. For some extent, I agree that education will make a difference. I believe that education is an agent of change in the terms of that education process will bring people to get knowledge or skill. However, not all education will have positive impacts for the people. There are also some adverse effects. For example, in Indonesia, as I know, the education system has not helped much people to be an agent of change or to be a machine of development. Why do I say this? Because I found that in the past few years the education system in some parts has eroded the people, especially the poor.In this case, I notice that education has become a commodity.  Like goods, education has become a commercial thing. We need money to buy goods. The same thing happens to education, we also need that to access education. Unfortunately, not all people in this world are riches. According to some global facts, most of them live in the poverty. In my country, Indonesia, the number of people living in the poverty is increasing significantly. Currently, from 250 million people of Indonesian population, there are fifty million people are suffering from poverty.I believe this figure might be bigger because the definition of the poor people itself is various. Let me say, if we use the UN definition, what is called the poor is someone who earn money less than 1 dollar a day. If this definition is used, the percentage of the poors in Indonesia will much more bigger that the present data exists now. Because of this situation, not all people can go for study because it needs a lot of money. Schools are only for the riches. The poors are prohibited to study. This is not fair because it will create the structural poverty. The poor is getting poorer, the rich is getting riches. It is true that education can change people's life, from being uneducated to become educated. This educated people will use their knowledge and skills to get jobs and money.This will help them to get rid of the poverty. If the poor does not have a chance to access education, the will be poor forever. For instance, the student from poor family will inherite the poverty from their parents unless they are given an opportunity to liberate themself from poverty.  Education can liberate them, but in this case the education is not only a learning process to get knowledge and skills but also to create the community who are able to liberate themselves from the poverty. We have to know, no one choose to be born as a poor. They become poor because they have a limited access to gain and to build their capacity. The cultural system has deteriorate the community to move forward to get a better life. As a solution, the system has to be changed. It should not allienate the poor community. Regarding to the community development, the changing of the education system will give positive results for the poor. For example, in Garut, Indonesia, there is a school named Sururon which has a new paradigm in developing the local community. This school is established by some volunteers who are concern to the community development. I visited this school last year. The teachers do not consider the student as an empty glass. They know that the students already have potency and it is their duty to develop the students potency. The students are seeds, therefore, the teachers have to provide soil and fertilizer to make this seeds grow. In the other words, the learning process is not only to get knowledge and skills but also to develop a new consciousness. The students must be consciousness that they can liberate themselves from the poverty. They have to realize that the poverty they get is part of the political and cultural system. The have to fight to change the system. They have to be critical in questioning why they become poor. They have to realize that they are oppressed by the riches who has more power. They have to fight their oppressor. If they do this, the community development in the end will get a good achievement. submitted to Ken Fernandes as a part of the assignment