Education in Indonesia through Foucault's Discourse

TheIndonesia.id - Formal education is essential for a person and a right for every citizen. In Indonesia, education is regulated in Article 31 of the 1945 Constitution, which contains 2 (two) articles that every citizen has the right to receive education, and the government strives for and organizes a national education system regulated by law. Makkawaru (2019), in his article entitled The Importance of Education for Life and Character Education in the World of Education, explains that education is the principal capital in facing life's challenges. Through education, every human being will have the strength to control themselves, intelligence, noble morals, and skills needed by a country.

However, what has happened lately is ironic when educated people dominate the political stage, which shows behaviour like people with less education. Anarchism in various lines displayed through the mass media is proof of this. So, education in Indonesia itself needs to be questioned. What is the essence of the education system in Indonesia? How does the education system in Indonesia shape the character and morals of the Indonesian people?

Discussing the education system will be interesting when analysed through the lens of French philosopher Michel Foucault's discourse. Through Foucault's discourse, we can see the true face of education in Indonesia.

Michel Foucault is a French philosopher and historian. According to him, discourse is related to history and the reproduction of power. Discourse is arranged to be widely accepted and normalized through social structures. Discourse denies the existence of plurality of meaning, the main focus in postmodern thought. According to Foucault, discourse is related to power, knowledge, discipline, biopolitics, and the archaeology of knowledge. Thus, Foucault's discourse analysis can see the invisible power of the education system in Indonesia and reveal the entities that influence the subjects that form the social identity of education.

Education and Uniformity

Education in Indonesia is always identical to uniformity. This standardization, for example, appears in the standard of student appearance in schools (for example, male hair should not be extended, the obligation to wear the hijab for Muslim female students, skirts below the knee, and uniform school equipment), as well as standardization in student thinking patterns.

The standardization of thinking patterns in education can also be seen with the existence of the curriculum. The curriculum is a constraint for students that will limit their freedom of thought. Formulating the curriculum from elementary, secondary, to higher education levels makes someone focus only on one point of view or method of solving problems without thinking about other opportunities.

In fact, the education curriculum is intended to adjust to the level of students. Through the curriculum, educational institutions can regulate what material is taught during one semester or one academic year. However, this seems to restrain students in their freedom and creativity to think.

In addition, education also builds discipline in students. This discipline is built, one of which is through the mechanism of determining study hours, where the entire teaching and learning process in schools is systematically regulated. Discipline is increasingly rooted with the presence of a reward and punishment system applied by educational institutions to students. Through this system, students will only follow the rules if they know the reasons for the rules. For example, students who come late to school are prohibited from attending lessons. Or, a child who does not wear a uniform (tie, hat, and belt) is punished and recorded in the report card distribution. This punishment is often applied, even though it has minimal essence.

Reproduction of Power in Education

Reproduction of power has been perpetuated in the social system of society because each individual will be bound in one community in society, including schools. In practice, students will become the subject of reproduction of power in school institutions. This can be seen in the relationship between teachers and students or their peers.

In the education system in Indonesia, the reproduction of power is depicted through the relationship between teachers and students. Teachers transfer knowledge to their students, but students cannot question how the teacher got his knowledge. The assumption that teachers have superior knowledge causes a power relationship in this condition. In addition, the issue of ranking has placed students with higher rankings as more exceptional than other students. This certainly creates a sense of inferiority towards students with lower achievements.

Education and the Archaeology of Knowledge

Knowledge is something that is formed over tens to hundreds of years. Knowledge is formed through various kinds of power conflicts. Through these conflicts, knowledge will be obtained that is determined by a much stronger party. Knowledge is then reproduced and considered true by the social system of society.

Certain knowledge is then reproduced to become a metanarrative in society, reproduced through films and learning in schools. This knowledge is evidence of the form of reproduction of power in education. As a result, the standardization of thoughts, behaviour, understanding, perceptions, and narratives regarding certain knowledge automatically occurs.

Not to mention that people with a bachelor's degree are more valued than those without higher education. This has at least found one example of how education shapes social status. Social status formation is based not only on whether or not someone graduated but also on where the person graduated from. Graduates of prestigious state universities in Indonesia are more valued than other state universities. Likewise, graduates of prestigious state universities will lose out if compared to prestigious universities abroad.

The formation of this social status is something that we can associate with binary opposition. Society assumes that a graduate's status is higher than that of a high school graduate. Does that mean people who only graduate from high school will perform worse than graduates? Will the quality of a graduate be better than that of a high school graduate?

Through Foucault's discourse analysis, education in Indonesia can be understood as a tool for reproducing power. Foucault, a French philosopher and historian, considered discourse an instrument of power regulated and normalized through social structures. In the context of education, this means that education teaches knowledge and forms social identity and subjects.

The knowledge taught in education is also the result of power conflicts over the years. Education also forms social status, so the conclusion is increasingly strong that education is only used to create binary opposition in society and influence the perception of individual quality based on education level alone. So, it is not surprising that Indonesia's current condition is still far from a utopian condition, manifesting as a country with a level of educational stability that can be the principal capital for this country to become a developed country.

Yosef Triyoga Saputra, Student of Sociology Science, Faculty of Social and Political Science, Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta