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"INFLATION"
That the aristocratic fixation also expressed in the title cult, has
not vanished in democratic, post-revolutionary Indoneesia is also
borne out by the fact that the Indonesian government recently warned
that many persons were arrogating to themselves traditional titles of
nobility, though not entitled to do so.27
The persistence of the cult of titles and diplomas has not meant
a quickening of Indonesia's badly needed technical and economic de-
velopment, and the white collar fixation produces a lag in precisely
those fields that could aid this development. A recent case study of
educational preferences reveals not only sharp differences in popular
appreciation of, on the one hand, so-called academic high schools
(which prepare for the higher bureaucratic functions, for improved
status in society generally, and for higher education) and on the
other, the commercial, vocational, and technical secondary schools,
but also that children of government officials have a better chance
by far of entering the academic high schools, so that the bureaucratic
elite and the aristocracy seem to be maintaining their social status
through the school system, while children of non-officials or of com-
moners have, as often as not, to make do with a type of schooling,
which however necessary from the point of view of accelerating the
growth of a class of those with special technical and commercial skills,
is generally regarded as socially less prestigious.28 Another recent
case study of an island society in Eastern Indonesia reveals a veri-
table run of pupils on the academic high schools, although various
offices are already filled to overflowing, while skills needed in the
development of the island's agricultural and commercial life are de-
precated and ignored, and thus the educational process and job inter-
ests of the students drains the community of its best human
resources.29 Only one type of secondary vocational training seems to
attract an abundance of applications, i.e., training for grade school
teachers, a traditionally prestigious white-collar occupation, which,
moreover, easily confers government civil service status. The mass
training of teachers, begun under a special program since July,
1950,30 has now, in fact, resulted in an oversupply of teachers, and
has forced some of those with teacher training into manual occupa-
tions.