Pendidikan dalam pengerian luas (formal dan informal) penting untuk mewujudkan masyarakat sejahtera.  Pada tahun 1965 Singapura masih kacau-jorok-kumuh dan ekonominya masih terbelakang.  Segera Lee Kuan Yew dan
partai PAP membuat kebijakan mengutamakan kebijakan
pendidikan terarah.  Terarahnya disesuaikan dengan
visi Singapura sebagai negara industri dan jasa kelas
dunia. Industri bukan sembarang industri, tapi
industri yang memberi nilai tambah paling tinggi.
Kalau 30 tahun yang lalu fokusnya pada elektronika,
mulai tahun 1990 diarahkan pada 2 bidang yang paling
berperan dalam abad-21 yaitu biotech + life sciences
dan nanotech. Tentu saja kebijakan itu dibarengi
pengutamaan pendidikan yang memantapkan visi lainnya
yaitu Singapura sebagai pusat keuangan dan memantapkan
  kedudukan Singapura sebagai pelabuhan yang ramai dan
effisien.  Pendidikan begitu pentingnya, sehingga yang
  dipercaya menjadi menteri pendidikan selalu orang
top, sekelas Goh Chock Tong.  Hasilnya, Singapura yang
41 tahun yang lalu masih terbelakang, sekarang
penghasilan per kapitanya $27,000 atau hampir sama
dengan Italia negara industri anggota OECD.

Sayang Indonesia yang subur makmur manusianya jempolan
dan cerdas2 belum pernah mengutamakan pendidikan sejak
merdeka 61 tahun yang lalu. Apalagi pendidikan yang
diarahkan menyongsong masa depan sebagai negara apa
kek (mis. negara industri).  Bahwasanya anak SMA ada
yang memenangi emas dalam olimpiade fisika dan sains,
itu soal lain lagi — bukan akibat kebijakan
pendidikan melainkan peranan seorang Yohanes Suryo.
Kalau saja dari semula masyarakat disibukkan dengan
hal2 positif, agaknya air waves Indonesia tidak
disibukkan oleh skandal YS-ME dan poligami AAG
berkepanjangan.

Salam,
RM

—————————–

December 23, 2006
The Jakarta Post

The future of knowledge sharing

Ko‹chiro Matsuura, Paris

Is knowledge sharing a utopia, the international
community's new (buzz word)? We do not think so. A few
examples are more telling than a dozen analyses. In
1965, Singapore was overrun with shantytowns, and its
economy was underdeveloped. Since then, the
authorities have pursued resolute policies aimed at
investing in education, improving skills and
productivity and attracting high-added-value
industries. The per capita GDP of Singapore has today
overtaken that of many countries of the North.

An economy based on the sharing and spread of
knowledge is an opportunity for the emerging countries
and for the wellbeing of their populations. Thus,
despite its poverty, the Indian State of Kerala now
boasts a level of human development close to that of
the countries of the North: Life expectancy has risen
to 73 years and rates of schooling are in excess of 90
percent. Kerala contributes significantly to making
India the 8th nation in the world in terms of
scientific publications.

In 1971, a few thousand migrants settled in an empty
plain 20 km from Lima and created Villa El Salvador.
Practicing self-reliance, its inhabitants set up
education centers and formed associations. A
courageous endeavor of participatory community
development, relying on women, transformed this shanty
area into an organized town. Recognized in 1983 as a
municipality, Villa El Salvador established in 1987
its university.

Today, 98 percent of its children attend school and
the rate of adult illiteracy (4.5 percent) is the
lowest in the country. The town now has 400,000
inhabitants, including 15,000 students. The
municipality provides computer access points for its
citizens, who express their opinions on issues under
discussion within the community.

Shared knowledge is thus a powerful lever in the fight
against poverty. It is also today the key to wealth
production. Finland, which suffered a severe economic
crisis following the break-up of the Soviet Union, is
currently cited as a model: It invests almost 4
percent of its GDP in research, its education system
is highest rated among the industrialized countries by
OECD, and the variation in performance between pupils
and educational institutions is astonishingly low,
demonstrating that success on the scale of knowledge
societies can very well be combined with equity.

These are far from being isolated examples. In all
parts of the world, different countries are in the
process of inventing new styles of development, based
on knowledge and intelligence. For a society's
development potential will depend less in future on
its natural wealth than on its capacity to create,
spread and utilize knowledge. Does this mean that the
21st century will see the rise of societies based on
shared knowledge?

Since this is a public good that ought to be
accessible to all, none should find themselves
excluded in a knowledge society. But the sharing of
knowledge cannot be reduced to the dividing up of
knowledge or the exchange of a scarce resource to
which nations, societies and individuals lay competing
claim.

In network societies, creativity and the possibilities
of exchange or sharing are greatly increased. These
societies create an environment particularly favorable
to knowledge, innovation, training and research. The
new forms of network sociability that are developing
on the Internet are horizontal and not hierarchical,
encouraging cooperation, as well illustrated by the
models of the research "collaboratory" or (open
source) computer software.

The emergence of network societies and the concomitant
reduction of transaction costs encourage the rise of
new forms of productive organization, founded on
exchange and collaboration within a sharing community.
This is particularly vital set against the temptation
of economic warfare: These new practices hold out the
hope that we shall be able to arrive at a fair balance
between the protection of intellectual property
rights, necessary for innovation, and the promotion of
knowledge belonging to the public domain.

The sharing of knowledge cannot however be confined to
the creation of new knowledge, the promotion of
knowledge belonging to the public domain or the
narrowing of the cognitive divide. It implies not only
universal access to knowledge, but also the active
participation of everyone.

It will therefore be the key to the democracies of the
future, which should be based on a new type of public
space, in which genuine democratic encounters and
deliberations involving civil society will make it
possible to address social problems conceived in
prospective terms. (Hybrid forums) and citizens'
conferences prefigure this development in some
respects.

The obstacles that stand in the way of knowledge
sharing are admittedly numerous. Like the solutions we
are putting forward, they are at the heart of the
UNESCO World Report Towards Knowledge Societies
directed by J‚r“me Bind‚ and published a few months
ago. The 21st Century Talk that we have just organized
at UNESCO on the topic of knowledge sharing has
doubtless helped to identify them more clearly:
Polarization, the digital divide and, even more
serious, the knowledge fracture and gender inequality
these are the main impediments to the sharing of
knowledge.

To overcome these obstacles, societies will have to
invest massively in lifelong education for all,
research, info-development and the growth of "learning
societies" and to cultivate greater respect for the
diversity of cognitive cultures and for local,
traditional and indigenous knowledge. Knowledge
sharing will not forever be a future prospect: For it
is not the problem but the solution. The sharing of
knowledge does not divide knowledge: It causes it to
grow and multiply.

The writer is Director-General of UNESCO.