STATEMENT

BY THE MINISTER OF NATIONAL EDUCATION

OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

Her Excellency, Madame Chairperson,

His Excellency, Mr. Zhou Ji, Minister of Education of China,

Excellencies Initiators of Education Forum for Asia,

Excellencies Ministers and Deputy Ministers from Asia Countries,

Distinguished delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Assalamu’alaikum Warrahmatullahi Wabarakatuh

Before I proceed with my statement, let me express my Government’s heartfelt regrets for the bombings done by irresponsible individuals in Bali few weeks ago, which undoubtedly deserves our severe condemnation. In this connection, allow me to convey our highest appreciation for your support and sympathies. Furthermore, our sincere gratitude also goes to all Asia member countries for the support and kind assistance rendered to the Acehnese people, who have been severely hit by the tsunami. In particular, I would like to express condolences of Indonesian people and the government of Indonesian to our brothers and sisters in Pakistan and India who have been severely affected by the devastating earthquake last week.

It is with honor and privilege that I join you today at this august forum, Education for Asia, 2005. I would like to extend my special thanks and congratulation to the initiators, conveners, and supporters for their efforts in successfully organizing this great event.

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen

The Government of Indonesia made political commitments for achieving basic education for all. In this broader context, national level reflections were engaged for developing a new vision of education, as part of the reform in Indonesia, which emphasize the implementation of the principles of democracy, autonomy, decentralization, and public accountability. The reforms in education system have given prominence to enhance its performance in the framework of even distribution of educational opportunities. This reform process has fundamental impact on national education system and its mission to meet various challenges in the present day world.

Guided by the mission of education and educational strategies, the Republic of Indonesia enacted a new Law on National Education System in July 2003, resulting from national wide consultation. The Law has its foundations in the 1945 Constitution of Indonesia, Article 31, Section (1), of which states that each and every citizen shall have the fundamental right to education. The Law creates a legal framework for the major educational goal, policies and plans. The key targets include the expansion and equity, the improvement of quality and relevance, and the implementation of autonomy in higher education. The Law seeks to open access to education at all levels and all forms - formal, non-formal, as well as informal - for all the citizens of Indonesia. Its main thrust is to make education relevant to societal needs; to develop further community-based education; and to enhance participation by community in supporting basic education. It provides rights and obligations of citizens, parents, community, and Government.

One of the main purposes of the Law is to inculcate in young minds the respect for human rights, for cultural pluralism and learning to live together, promote morals and character building as well as unity in diversity (Bhinneka Tunggal Ika) in the spirit of brotherhood and solidarity.

The Government recognizes the importance of education as an investment in human capital formation that lays the foundation for future economic growth and development in Indonesia. In that spirit, the Law provides, in compliance with constitutional amendment of 2002 that 20 percent national budget shall be allocated for education.

The education development strategies developed by Indonesia in the new century is based on this law and the vision developed for future Indonesia. Our long term vision is that all Indonesia’s children and young people will have equal opportunity to quality education at all levels, irrespective of economic status, gender, geography, ethnicity and physical disability consistent with the Government’s commitment to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.  We envisage a time when graduates from all its institutions will meet the highest international and regional standards and will be competitive in global and regional job markets and be the impetus for broad-based, political, social and economic development in Indonesia.

The government recognises that it cannot achieve this alone and see its mission to promote and implement a more inclusive approach to the governance and resource mobilization for education. In the context of broader decentralization reforms, the Ministry will adopt a stronger enabling role in providing local governments with clearly set standards, guidelines on optimum strategic choices and financing mechanisms, whilst recognizing the decision making powers of local governments and district education managers.

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen

Education is a constitutional right for every citizen in our country. It has always been our national commitment to fulfill this right. Our efforts have so far been geared to accelerating the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and Education for All. With all the resources we have, combined with technical assistances we have received through partnerships, cooperation and collaboration with other countries, agencies and organizations, including Asia Forum for Education and UNESCO, we are determined to complete in 2008 our nine-years basic education programme, and reduce by half the 15.5 million illiterate people. This would be accomplished through both formal and non-formal education programmes, targeted to over 40 million pupils. We are simultaneously committed to expanding senior secondary education to reach around 8 million students and higher education to reach around 4 million students. In all these efforts, gender mainstreaming has been put as one of the top priorities. With over 50 million students spread throughout the archipelago consisting of over 17,000 islands, the realization of this commitment will be an impossible task to accomplish, if we just depend on conventional management and service delivery. We have therefore decided to mainstream information and communication technology (ICT) in our education development programmes for both management and service delivery.

To ensure that our nation keep abreast with the social and economic developments at both national and international levels, we are also committed to improving the quality and relevancy of our education. The national education educational standards of contents, process, graduate outcomes, educational personnel, facilities and equipment, management, funding as well as educational assessment, as mandated by the National Education Act will be the stepping stone for quality improvement. Related to this is our renewed commitment to facilitating the integrated development of children’s ethical-moral-religious, intellectual, aesthetical and kinesthetic potentials to ensure that they will become citizens who, with their knowledge and skills, can contribute positively not only to themselves, but also to their nation and mankind. Only through this will education be meaningful to sustainable development.

In supporting the accomplishment of our commitments to the expansion and equity of educational access and to the improvement of educational quality and relevancy, we are promoting good governance in which accountability is embedded. For this purpose, we implement school-based management, encourage community participation, and run capacity building programmes as well as make efforts to improve internal supervision and control.

In the framework of accomplishing these missions, geared to the establishment of the Indonesian learning society, we have implemented the lifelong learning approach by incorporating the values of cooperation, competition and solidarity.

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen

We have witnessed the significant contribution made by great advancements in science and technology to the betterment of our life. These advancements have made it possible for people to exploit natural resources and invent things innovatively for the benefit of all of us and our future generation. At the same time, however, we have also experienced acute environmental degradation caused by scientific and technological abuses. Unwise exploitation and misuse of technological inventions have indeed damaged our ecological and social systems; hence, endangering the whole life system of our planet. The challenge is inevitable: how to balance natural resource usage and natural conservation; the freedom to invent and innovate technologically and safety concerns, social harmony and peace. The development of science should then be harnessed by the code of ethics of scientists to guarantee that no counterproductive implications would affect mankind.

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen

One important cultural education issue we fell worth raising is the importance of nurturing, cultural diversity, which in fact characterizes every nation. Human beings have been created to be different, to be able to know each other, to live in harmony with others and to learn from each other so that they can improve their lives in a sustainable manner. The cultural diversity in Indonesia, for example, has been the result of differing histories of the people’s contacts with other people and environments in a geographical setting of a vast archipelago. Our culture is to a large extent diverse. It is composed of more than 350 ethnic cultures expressed in more than 700 languages, in different batik designs, in different architectural models, in different types and tastes of food, in different customs, traditional dances and music, and forms of indigenous, local knowledge and wisdom. The diversity in values, outlooks and capacity on the cultural level, together with the variety, openness and adaptability of social forms are our culture’s most basic structural features. It is to these features that the greatest strength and durability of our society as a whole are attributable. Indonesia therefore lends its full support to the Forum’s initiative on the importance of Art Education in Asia.

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen

Despite significant progress has been achieved by countries in Asia. Over 100 million children are still out of school and more than 800 million adults are illiterate; most of them are women and live in rural Asia. Therefore, the main challenge of us in Asia is to find ways through better cooperation to implement the Dakar Framework of Action in reaching Education for All.

Thus, I am very pleased to learn that this forum will provide us opportunities for sharing our experiences, learning from each other and collaborating for the future of our Asian children.

It is my hope that the forum will continue its role in facilitating cooperation in areas such as: elimination of adult illiteracy; achieving quality basic education for all; enhancing teacher status, proficiency, and continuing professional development; improving quality and relevancy of higher education; expanding the us of ICT in education, and revitalizing vocational education.

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen

As we know, basic education has not yet been equally enjoyed by children in many countries, especially in Asia, due to various reasons. One factual and essential reason is the lack of legal commitment of respective governments. In this respect, Indonesia has taken an initiative to host an International Conference on the Legal Framework for Financing Basic Education as a Fundamental Human Right. This conference is to take Place in Jakarta in early December 2005. Only with adequate funding, safeguarded legally, will basic education be enjoyed by every child in this world. Let me take this opportunity to invite you all to this conference and share your prominent and precious ideas on this every important matter.

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen

Let me close my statement by reiterating my deep appreciation for the opportunity to meet you and to participate in the discussions of this important conference. Let me also again thank and congratulate our distinguished Initiators, our hosts and our organizers for this excellent opportunity and warm hospitality extended to all of us. Thank you. Xiè xiè.

Beijing, 15 October 2005

Prof. Dr. Bambang Sudibyo, MBA

Minister of National Education

Republic of Indonesia