The State of Contemporary Education

PEMERINTAH KOTA SURABAYA

A student paints the figure of her idol during the commemoration of Education Day at Balai Pemuda, Surabaya, East Java, Surabaya (2/5/2021).

National Education Day, May 2, has come and gone, along with the celebration of Idul Fitri 2022. However, we still have the opportunity to reflect on it.

There are so many educational topics that we need to discuss and find solutions for. In his election campaign for the second term, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo echoed human resource development, after there was criticism that the first term was too heavy on infrastructure. The quality of human resources can be said to be poor. The workforce is dominated by elementary school graduates, followed by junior high school graduates; meanwhile, challenges are getting more complex.

The obstacles were felt, starting from the gap in information technology infrastructure, the availability of telephone credit, to the need for assistance, considering that this system requires new habits.

Unfortunately, the topic of HR development was rolled up by the pandemic. The government's focus has shifted to tackling the pandemic and restoring the economy. Two years later, education as an integral element of human resource development must be mainstreamed again. This is not an easy job. During the pandemic, online education took place, which even without the pandemic would be a necessity. The obstacles were felt, starting from the gap in information technology infrastructure, the availability of telephone credit, to the need for assistance, considering that this system requires new habits.

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> Reconstruction of Education

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On the other hand, we also see online education as a future education model that offers more equitable opportunities because of its inclusive and egalitarian nature -- not only for the nation's children in various parts of the archipelago, but also for the opportunity to gain global knowledge, if in further education, such as through Udemy or Coursera.

Without the pandemic, the world of education is among the most disrupted, starting from the learning system to the academic menu, along with the birth of new disciplines or jobs. This situation is incomplete. The Industrial Revolution 4.0 has just begun and new jobs have not yet emerged.

KOMPAS/AGUS SUSANTO (AGS)

Commemoration of National Education Day 2020 which was carried out in the atmosphere of the Covid-19 pandemic

Through the Main Performance Index, the Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Ministry (Kemendikbudristek) appropriately implements an outcome-based education system. The fruit of education is measured by how graduates are absorbed by the industry. Here, Kemendikbudristek needs to understand they should not bother universities too much with accreditation procedures that lead to a hassle for higher education administrators (PT). In practice, PT managers have been busy with the reconstruction of the education system to deal with disruption. Do not let the bureaucracy and authorities stay busy by applying their authority to create new, inconsistent rules.

Education progresses if there is room for the managers to carry out internal institutional policies, without being highly burdened with various rules. The managers in charge are aware that, apart from the ministry's authority, there is inherent supervision from the community, which can be an element of an education watchdog.

We are distressed, for the last few years the discourse in the media has been colored by the difficult topic of being a professor. The discourse on strengthening the basic, secondary, higher and vocational education systems has received less attention. The world of education needs to be made progressive, giving more room for educational institution managers to set models and goals than a big-brotherism-style system.

(This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo)