Abstract

Education is widely considered an essential tool for national development, particularly in Southeast Asia, in which advancing education ideally means advancing social cohesion, and security, and economic growth. This paper juxtaposes The Rainbow Troops: A Novel (2005, hereafter The Rainbow Troops) by Indonesian writer Andrea Hirata and Cho tôi xin một vé đi tuổi thơ (Ticket to Childhood, 2008) by Vietnamese writer Nguyễn Nhật Ánh, understanding their potentially generated dialogue about idealized education. Reading character constructions and narrative flows against educational policies and realities of Vietnam and Indonesia in particular and Southeast Asia at large reveals criticism about the true goals of education programs pertaining to children. Specifically, they provoke in readers questions about the role of education as a tool for national development appropriate to each political and economic context and the respect for the psychological, intellectual, and physical development of children.