President Jokowi Urges Vocational Teachers to Upgrade Skills

President Jokowi gives directive at the 2019 National Assembly on Education and Culture, at Training Center of Ministry of Education and Culture, Depok, West Java, Thursday (12/2) (Photo: JAY/PR)

Starting this year, the Indonesian Government will shift the country’s budget allocation for human development programs, including trainings for vocational teachers to upgrade their skills, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said.

President Jokowi explained that after focusing on infrastructure development, the Government will shift focus on the development of human resources on a large scale and he acknowledged the importance of the role of education personnel to the development.

“Besides infrastructure development, we also must focus on human resources development in a bid to become a developed country,” the President said when opening the 2019 National Assembly on Education and Culture at Training Center of Ministry of Education and Culture in Depok, West Java, Tuesday (12/2).

President Jokowi requested the teachers of vocational schools to upgrade their skills, particularly the teachers who have specific skills.

“The percentage of teachers with specific skills should be more than the regular teachers (teacher who teach regular subjects such as religion, Indonesian language), but the fact is now the percentage of regular teachers is 65%. This is the Minister’s job to raise the number of skilled teachers,” President Jokowi added.

The President then ordered Minister of Education and Culture to make a clear separation of duties on education matters. “Responsibilities of the Central Government, provinces, cities, districts and so on must be clear and well-coordinated,” he asserted.

The President also reminded the importance of introducing the students to the Industrial Revolution 4.0. The teachers must give lessons related to digitalization, such as language coding, artificial intelligence, advanced robotic, crypto currency, and virtual reality.

Thus, the development of human resources is highly essential to keep up with the current technology and the Government is determined to allocate the budget for it.

The President went on saying that the people are now facing a very intense competition between countries and the key to win the competition is through the advancement of human resources.

In the future, he continued, it will no longer a rich country defeats a small country, or big countries defeat small countries. Instead, it will be fast countries defeat slow countries, he added.

For the record, the 2019 National Assembly on Education and Culture was attended by 1,238 people from various regions, consisting of Heads of Education and Culture Regional Office across Indonesia, representatives of foreign education and culture agencies, Head of the Technical Implementation Unit (UPT) of Ministry of Education and Culture Regional Office, Chairperson of the Provincial Arts Council, Chairperson of professional teaching organizations, and partners of Ministry of Education and Culture. (DND/JAY/ES)

Translated by: Estu Widyamurti
Edited by: Mia Medyana