Higher Education Primary Needs

Higher education is a way out and a prerequisite for advanced generations. The state must be present here.

Education is the key to the progress of human civilization. The essence of education is to change society's mindset to become more advanced.

Currently, most students at state universities have protested to the campus because of the impact of the increase in single tuition fees (UKT) which is not commensurate with the increase in regional minimum wages in each region.

This issue was finally responded to by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) which stated that higher education was a tertiary need and was not mandatory. This then caused high levels of disappointment among students.

If we refer to higher education as not mandatory, this is indeed stated in Law Number 20 of 2003 concerning the National Education System. This law only mandates compulsory education for 12 years or up to the equivalent of high school.

Also read: College Fees Increasingly Expensive, Future Becomes a Bet

However, if you look at the progress of the times and the development of the labor market, high school level education alone is not enough. In this case, higher education is one way to improve community welfare.

If you look at it, the highest percentage of unemployment in Indonesia comes from high school graduates or equivalent, namely 17.99 percent in 2022. Meanwhile, most of the requirements for the world of work are at least a Bachelor's degree, so this is a challenge for workers who have low education, that higher education is wrong. one solution in vertical mobility for individuals.

ALIF ICHWAN

Job seekers lined up to get a sign indicating they were ready for an interview. Around 4,000 job seekers gathered at the Smesco Convention Hall in Jakarta on Wednesday (13/11/2019).

Higher education and unemployment

In addition to the issue of labor market friction that requires higher education, the unemployment rate of university graduates in Indonesia is the second highest, at 9.39 percent (BPS, 2024). Therefore, higher education does not necessarily guarantee individual success, but also confronts the mismatch between the labor market and the skills and abilities of the workforce.

Nevertheless, education is a constitutional mandate to be carried out wisely. The nine-year compulsory education program is currently increasing to 12 years to accommodate advancements in time and prepare the community to be competitive in the labor market competition.

The fact that the unemployment rate in Indonesia is relatively high remains a difficult problem to overcome today. The government must play an important role by increasing the absorption of the workforce with sufficient job openings, enhancing workers' skills, and providing social guarantees for workers with affordable costs, while also being present by giving incentives with a decent minimum wage for its citizens.

The increasingly advanced development of the times demands the importance of continuing higher education in realizing vertical mobility for a family.

Higher education and welfare

A study found that the higher the average length of education attainment, the higher someone's wage increase in the job market. This study was conducted by Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, a husband and wife duo who won the Nobel Prize in Economics for researching the SD Inpres program during the New Order era in Indonesia.

This study provides new insight that higher education is one of the crucial keys that can improve an individual's level of welfare. Thus, as the times evolve, the importance of pursuing higher education in achieving vertical mobility for a family is increasingly demanded.

The education budget is not optimal

The high level of attention given by the government towards education places emphasis on quality education with an allocation of 20 percent of the national budget towards education. However, despite this, the use of educational funds has not been optimized to improve the quality of education since the Reform era.

The slow increase in the average education level of the population is only at 9.13 years (equivalent to junior high school level). The quality of classroom infrastructure falls under the "good" category in only 14 percent, as reflected by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) score which places Indonesian students at a low position (ranked 68th out of 81 countries in the world).

The problematic issue of education is not only limited to elementary and secondary education, but also encompasses higher education. The high cost of higher education is felt by the community because it is not proportional to the increase in the minimum wage (UMR), and represents the increase in the cost of living in Indonesia.

The state must take a major role in funding the education of its citizens by allocating 20 percent of the state budget for education in a more appropriate and better system, including providing educational subsidies for tuition fees up to the S-1 level. Until now, the absorption of the state budget has been far from decent, which has resulted in Indonesia's education lagging behind other countries in the world.

Also read: Lagging behind in education, is there a solution?

The key to advanced HR in 2045

Higher education is one of the solutions and prerequisites for an advanced generation. This long-term investment requires extra work from all related elements, including the presence of the state in enlightening the lives of its citizens.

Indeed, higher education is not the only way out to absorb the workforce, but it is one of the efficient ways to improve individuals' well-being to break out of poverty and increase their prosperity.

Long-term investment is needed to achieve Indonesia's progress by 2045, starting from improving the quality of education and infrastructure that currently exist. Therefore, higher education is currently a primary need of the community to produce a developed country.

Dion Saputra Arbi,Economist at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta

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Dion Saputra Arbi