Indonesia's Battle Against Corruption in a Class All of its Own

Dutch university teaches Indonesian educators how to fight "the corruption culture" in the classroom

Jakarta Globe, Antara, April 05, 2010

Indonesia is stepping up its educational program against corruption, with 17 educators taking a three-week course at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam’s Institute of Social Studies.

The 17 educators — 13 high school teachers, three university lecturers and an officer with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) — are beneficiaries of the Dutch government’s StuNed scholarship program, which is managed by the Nuffic Nesso Indonesia office.

Office director Marrik Bellen said the Dutch government was a strong backer of the Indonesian government’s efforts to combat corruption.

Marrik said including anticorruption education in high school classrooms was one way of tackling “the corruption culture” at an early age.

The educators and the KPK member are learning how to develop an effective anti-corruption campaign module for high school students.

Transparency International’s most recent ranking of 163 countries put Indonesia at 130, with a dismal score of 2.4 out of 10.

This puts it on the same level as countries such as the Central African Republic, Ethiopia and Papua New Guinea.

The country is mired in corruption scandals involving officials at the highest levels.

A spokesman for Nuffic Nesso Indonesia, Ariono Hadipuro, said that after the 17 scholarship recipients completed the three-week course, they would help revise the country’s existing anti-corruption module for schools.

The KPK and Soegijapranata Catholic University in Semarang will host a two-week meeting for the project.

The university helped introduce an anti-corruption campaign into the country’s classrooms in 2005, but reports so far say it has been ineffective, with schools treating it as an extra curricular activity.

“The new anti-corruption module will be introduced first at the high schools of the teachers taking part in the three-week training course” in Rotterdam, Ariono said.

StuNed — short for Studeren in Netherlands, or studying in the Netherlands — provides Dutch government-funded scholarships for developing countries.

Nuffic Nesso is a nonprofit organization commissioned by the Dutch government to manage the scholarship program and other higher education issues in the Netherlands.

In Indonesia, Nuffic Nesso provides consultation and information for Indonesians seeking scholarships in the Netherlands. About 1,450 programs are currently on offer.

There are 300 scholarships available for both short-course and postgraduate programs.