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The Education Pipe Abstract Nowadays Indonesia is dealing with so many problem including the old enemy such as poverty and unemployment. One of the major causes of most problem that faced by Indonesia is the weakness in education sector. The development of this sector is very uneven. In the central or capital city, we can easily find school and college but in other place, even an elementary school is very hard to reach. This is exactly the same with the situation of the water supply in writers hometown, Nusa Tenggara Timur. The water pipe are attached neatly toward the house of officials so the water is abundant but the pipe towards the village was leak and broken so it is really dry there. So, by assuming the education system as the education pipe, the writer make some criteria as the solution in order to realize the equality in education sector in Indonesia. Indonesia is a very special and unique country. It is bless with a very rich natural resources, strategic place for trade, more than 250 millions citizens, more than 13 thousand islands that separated by oceans, and also more problem that left without any solution. The poverty, unemployment, corruption, floods, and many more problems wrapped around this country tightly. It is no doubt that every citizens hope that Indonesia can change into a better condition but unfortunately, most people just hope and make it just like a daydreaming without any efforts to try to help Indonesia in a real way, because the fact is they also don’t know how to change Indonesia to become a better country. Well, hope is good, but real action is better. And the real action for this case should start with down the tangled threads that wrapped Indonesia. Poverty and unemployment can caused by a low level of education, corruption can be caused by non formal education such as integrity and honesty, that just used as a mere theory rather than actual practice, flooding can also caused by people who are not aware of the dangers of littering because their low level of education. So from here, I can conclude that there is one keyword for the causes of Indonesia’s problem, it is education. In line with this, Nelson Mandela, the first South Africa President, once make this words, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Well, if education can change the world then of course education can also change Indonesia. So, the reason why Indonesia doesn’t change that much until now (still dealing with a lot of problems), is that there are major problem with the way education run in this country. The way education run in this country is just like the way the water flow from the pipe of PDAM in my hometown, Nusa Tenggara Timur. The pipe is leaking in so much spot so in certain areas there is no water at all, and in other areas such as the houses of government officials, the water is abundant. In other words, there is a huge inequality in education sector. In Java area which is close to the central government, the education is highly develop. But in other area such as Nusa Tenggara and Papua, it is totally opposite. Just like a water pipe that need specific criteria before it ready to use, the education pipe is also have some really important criteria. First, it need to be strong. Just like a strong water pipe that can drain water to many area for cultivate the new fertile seeds, education pipe is also need to be extremely strong so it can drain knowledge for each part of this country in order to produce qualified heritage, the strong mind youth that able to make a better Indonesia. Second, beside strong the education pipe must be able to reach every area in this wide country and every area should get the same size of the pipe. The central area which is close to the central government should not get a bigger size of pipe. The last criteria is the existence of supervision. Every wall have the possibility of cracked, and every pipe is also have possibility to leak, so it is so important to always controlling the pipe and patching the leak. If all of this criteria is accomplish, then the knowledge can flow easily to growing up brilliant youth generation in every part of Indonesia. However, as I said before, idea and hope would be nothing if there is no real action. The solution of inequality in education sector will never realized if we just make an assumption like the one I make above, and then just stop. The fact is, the education pipe isn’t real. We can’t see it. We don’t know where is the leak. All we know is just the result which is in some part of this country education growth rapidly and on the other part, there still a lot of children that cannot afford education. So, the only way to make the utopian education pipe become real is matching the part of the pipe with the real thing in this country and try to find the real solution base on the pipe assumption. The pipe can be assume as the coordination between the Ministry of Education and Culture in Jakarta with the Education Offices in every province, and even with the school or headmaster in every education institution (elementary until college) in Indonesia, while the water which flow in the pipe definitely can be assume as the flow of knowledge. As stated before, first things first, the pipe must be strong. It means that the coordination between Ministry of Education and Culture with every Province and District Education Office in Indonesia, must established clearly and sustainably. For example, the Ministry of Education and Culture must determining and informing the number and details of the education budget which taken from the state budget, to Province Education Office to be discussed. Otherwise, the Province Education Office are also keen to provide a report about the use of that education budget to the Ministry of Education and Culture, and also some additional report such as the request for additional budget to build new schools and provide more educational tools in their district . This kind of delivering information and communication process should run continuously from the central to regions and even up to the schools so the development will running smoothly. The second criteria is all of the pipe should have the same size. This is the major thing which is tightly related to the first criteria. Through intensive coordination and communication, people can detect if there are things that goes wrong such as corruption and they can fix it immediately. Also through the communication and sharing information process such as sending and analyzing the results of a survey about the number of schools in an area, the Central government can arrange and allocate the amount of funds or budget that required for the school development so that the Region government should set the targets, define those who will undertake the development projects, and account the budget to the Central government. To realize the criteria number one and two, this country need people who are honest and responsible because the project to build a strong education pipe is closely related to the biggest temptation for human, which is money. This project contains a large number of budget that can easily misused by a number of parties. So the best weapon to smoothen this project and prevent people from doing corruption is the last thing in the criteria , it is the supervision. Supervision is a must for this education pipe megastructure. As what Thomas Hobbes said, “Every person has the potential to commit a crime especially if they are in the condition that support them to do so.” Well, assuming that what Hobbes said is a truth, then what if a person placed in the condition that doesn’t support them to do a crime? Of course the potential of someone doing a crime will decrease. So, that is what the supervision tried to do. To reduce the possibility of crime or in this case, corruption. In indonesia, the supervision is not only the KPK’s or the school regulatory agency’s job, but also every citizens. If all of the criteria above already done yet, then the dream to equalize education in Indonesia can be realized and Indonesia will step forward as a developed country which not only rich of natural resources but also human resources. However, there are one thing left and this is crucial. To raise a seed, water is the main thing but it is not the only substance that a plant need. In the process, the plant will need another things such as minerals, sunlight, and fertilizer. To raise a smart, independent, brilliant youth generation of Indonesia, a school building is not the only thing that this country required. In the learning process, a person need other essential things such as library to provide books, internet to provide information, and electricity to provide light when they want to study in the night. All these things are very difficult to provide for those who live in rural areas considering that Indonesia’s overall development is very uneven and complicated. For example, in electrical problems, the government is actually in a dilemma situation because the PLN can not do electric discharge in area that have small number of population because the machine can easily damage and there are a huge loss in budget side. The only thing that government said they could do right now is to build and repair the road access to the rural area while hoping that it will attract more people to live in that area. However, if we just wait until the road access finish build up and all the rural area begin to be crowded with the citizens, then it might took a dozens year to realize the equality of education in Indonesia while in 2015 there will be Asean Community that will create more opportunity for student exchange an it will be a good news for student who live in central area, but a disaster for those student who live in rural area because they are extremely underdeveloped and don’t have any competitiveness. So, how to reach the equality of education with the youth in this era without waiting for a very long time? Then for this question, I want to suggest the government to provide a program called ‘Teachers Shuttle’. Basically, to start this program, government should recruit those who want to volunteer as a teacher in rural area. After that, the government must provide means of transportation like truck, motorcycle, or even horses, or anything that can bring the teacher into the rural target area. The teacher job is to teach the children there base on the class and applicable curriculum . The teacher must also help the children if they are slow in order to understanding a lesson and try as hard as they can to equate the subject with the lessons that acquired by the student who live in the city. After the lesson is over, the teacher can go back home with the same means of transportation. If it is really urgent, then the teacher can stay in the village for a while and after that, she or he can go back home by the transportation. So, while waiting for the government for working on the education pipe, the knowledge can still flow with the helping of the other mini pipes which is the volunteers help. Overall, that is the criteria that must be fulfilled or improved from the current education pipe that we have. Of course, the process to achieve equality in education is not an easy thing, it will not happened in just one night. The process to just to build the real water pipe is not easy and fast, so either with the process of making the strong and equal education pipe. However, things will never change if there is no start line. What we could do is try to set the start line and start to do the steps until we arrive at our destination in the finish line. To achieve the equality in education sector, we should start with fix the pipe based on the criteria which is strong, have equal size, and have a great supervision. And while the government working on the infrastructure in the remote areas, I believe that Teacher Shuttle program is the small alternative pipes that can really help the children of this country in order to realize the equality of the education in Indonesia.