Indonesia’s teachers urged to plant new seeds of struggle in post-independence era

KUALA LUMPUR, 17 AUGUST 2026 —

Teachers must move beyond the classroom to embody the spirit of struggle that secured Indonesia’s independence, a senior educator said, urging them to plant new seeds of nation-building rather than merely harvest old fields.

“What remains is not inferior to what came before,” the educator said. “It simply requires new crops.”

The call echoes the Javanese-Islamic teaching of catur piwulang by Sunan Drajat: give a cane to the blind, food to the hungry, clothes to the naked, and shelter to those caught in the rain. According to the educator, these four conditions—spiritual blindness, hunger for meaning, emotional exposure, and societal cold—are widespread among millennials.

Schools, the educator argued, are where these deficits must be addressed daily. A teacher is not just an instructor but a moral guide who nurtures growth, not rote learning. The title “hero without a medal” should spur educators to act as companions and second parents to their students.

Indonesia’s push toward its 2045 Golden Generation depends on teachers who see themselves as active agents of change, not passive keepers of tradition. Each teacher, the educator said, should mentor one or two students to embody that spirit.

Few concrete policy measures were outlined in the remarks, and no funding or institutional commitments were cited. The educator did not provide enrollment or graduation data to support the claim that millennial youth face systemic spiritual or emotional deficits.