An Essay For LPDP Scholarship

 

I am a graduate of English language teaching program in the University of Mataram. At first I thought that my Education in English department was as not important as those of my friend who studied science, business and law. It made me feel despair when my parents enrolled me into English department. However, the competition outside had realized me that English is a necessary for those who want to survive in a borderless world like today. I focused on my study until I graduated from English Department in The University of Mataram. No sooner before the graduation I taught English as a volunteer teacher in Ar – Raisiyah boarding school in 2009. However, in 2010 my lecturer suggested me to enroll in American studies department in Universitas Gadjah Mada because West Nusa Tenggar a government would provide on going scholarship for the students from that province. Graduate from reputable university in Indonesia did not directly provide me with a lucrative chance to get a better job. I asked my lecture back home about the possibility of teaching in the University of Mataram but there was no vacancy at that time. However, I went home from Jogjakarta at that time. Suddenly there was a friction among the youths in my village in Pohgading Timur. I needed to help my fellow villagers to get out from this perennial problem, thus we initiated Karang Taruna Gerbang Mulia in which the youth meet and dissolve their problems among others. Notwithstanding the newly erected youth organization was engaged me with the actual program to help the youth, the people at home still look down upon a university graduate who merely give benefit for the community. It made them look down upon education until they regard that education was no longer important for their children. It is better for them to send their children to Malaysia as migrant workers rather than send their children into university. At that time they considered education in university was useless because as an example I couldn’t do many things to be a good example for them. In 2015 Indonesian government signed ASEAN economic society with other ASEAN countries. This newly built regional economic society focuses on four areas to increase competitiveness i.e. uniting the regional market which based on goods and services production, developing ASEAN countries into a highly competitive economic area, developing ASEAN countries into an equal economic growth, and integrating ASEAN economic society into global economic society. Based on these focus of ASEAN economic society has both positive and negative impact on Indonesia. The positive side will be the investment in Indonesia will positively grow to increase Indonesian national economy and the negative impact will be Indonesian manpower are less competitive with their counterparts

 

from other ASEAN countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Workforce is highly considered competitive if they have good education and skills. It is a commonsense that education level of other countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand are better b etter than Indonesia. Their workforce is also skilled with good English that make them easiness to access manpower market. Indonesia, on the other hand, has a lot of unskilled workers. Based on data of Indonesian Statistical Bureau, in 2017 65 % of Indonesian workforce is dominated with elementary and junior high school graduates. Moreover Indonesian workforces are bad in English, though English is highly required in an open market society to increase our competitiveness. Based on World Bank report in 2017 says that 44% of Indonesian workforce’s shortcoming is English. This report  is also strengthened by Indonesian English proficiency index position issued by English First (EF) which put Indonesia in ranks 32 of 70 countries under Singapore and Malaysia with their advance level of English. This condition certainly will pose a serious threat to Indonesian workforce in the future. Based on this fact I realized that I have to share my knowledge on English with others. Therefore at this time, besides working in an international non-government organization, I actively support some English language program both in a formal and informal level. In a formal level, I am a part p art time lecture in a newly built private university in Jakarta. Teaching English in university has been considered as a lucrative job, but it is different when we teach in a small private university that provide formal education for those who cannot afford the cost of high education. In this university where most of the students comes from low-level workers who want to increase their capacity to compete in a very competitive place like in greater Jakarta area, teaching is a part of social devotion to help others in order to achieve their dream in the future. It is an amusement when I see my students can speak English well and sometimes we communicate in English on everyday conversation. Furthermore in informal level, I support an English program held by my fellow from Lombok in Jakarta. I am really happy to help them increasing their English competency to help them become competitive students in Jakarta. In the future I just want my fellow Indonesian youth will be well educated and equipped with advance level of English so they can compete in very competitive situation. Furthermore for my fellow Lombok I am eager to see them to have a better education and also competitive in a tight competition. I am pretty sure that in the future we are able to be more competitive and able to compete with people

 

from other countries. Eventually, for me the real happiness is to contribute for the development of our nations, share knowledge with others. Therefore being rich does not mean how much we have but how much we have shared with with others. I hope I always give give my best contribution to my country and also my fellow Indonesians.