Education For Productivity

Welfare is the main goal of any nation. As long as one nation cannot discover a big oil field, their welfare only comes from high productivity where input is processed to be high output.

Input can be found everywhere, but the output is merely based on the capacity of how each nation processing it. For instance iron is found everywhere, included in poor country, but the Japanese create those irons to be the best car in the world. Imagination is found everywhere, included in poor country, but the Americans create those imaginations to be the best film or best software in the world.

The welfare difference among nations is caused of how they benefit any input. The more output they can create, the more welfare they can can get. And high productivity is parameter of high output.

In detail the sources of productivity can be divided into 2 types, namely: (i) added value, (ii) production efficiency.

Added value process is to enhance the value of input. An input is processed through innovation, so the output higher and higher. Iron is added by values, it becomes a car. An ordinary car is added by specific values and it becomes Lexus.

Efficiency is the process to decrease input to get at least the same output. This is the added value of production process. Henry Ford innovated the car production process for the cheaper car price. Instead of making cars one by one, he introduced the system of line production where the components of a car are produced separately and they are assembled through conveyor belt.

Both of productivity sources depend on knowledge capacity of human resources. And knowledge depends on education in formal or informal way. Innovation only comes from the better understanding of knowledge. Certainly business profit also encourages innovation.

The data show how superior developed nations on innovation. During 1980 – 1999, the Arabs resulted in 171 international patents, while South Korea resulted in 16.328. And Hewlett Packard, the American multinational company, patented 11 new innovations everyday.

The harsh competition in business compels any business entity to innovate everyday. So the government has to support business competitiveness through the right education policy.

To maintain the competitiveness and domination of Toyota and Sony, the Japanese system of education must always be improved to create the best mechanical and best electrical engineer. To maintain the competitiveness and domination of Microsoft and Intel, the American system of education must always be improved to create the best information technology specialist.

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There 2 conditions of Indonesia concerning with education for productivity, namely: (i) education effectiveness, (ii) link and match between research and industry.

First, there is an example that proves our education has no clear objective.

As the the governor of Gorontalo Province, once Fadel Muhammad visited the local vocational school. He found the teacher was teaching train technology to the pupils. He wondered there was no train in Gorontalo Province and there was no plan to develop train as transportation system. Then he asked the teacher whether the teacher had seen the train before. Fadel got the funny answer that the teacher had never traveled by train and even he never seen the train directly, except from the picture!

It is clear that Gorontalo's pupil do not need to learn the train technology because it will never add value to the pupils and to economic development of Gorontalo province.

In contrast Gorontalo province has many boats for fishing. Technology development for boats will be valuable. So the education in Gorontalo should focus on boat technology rather than train technology.

Certainly the basic science and skill such as math, physics, chemistry, English is important, but for practical objective the knowledge taught should be in line with the local economic development.

Some research point out that the existence of Silicon is full supported by the existence of Stanford University and California University.

Second, there is no link and match between industry and research.

In 2008, the government through Ministry of Research and Technology established Business Development Center. This institution is to bridge industry and research.

Until now there is a hundred of innovative products. However this does not influence much to economic progress. Those products cannot benefit to economy because they cannot link and match with market demand. They have never reached the level of mass production.

The executive director of Business Innovation Center (BIC), Kristanto Santosa, may have the right statement. He said that all we need is the leader who have great passion on innovation spirit. Since Habibie era, we have no leaders who paid the great attention to innovation. Only Pak Habibie has awareness of “added value” to guide government policy. So what we need now is the new leader like Habibie.

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