Indonesia needs comprehensive education reform to improve learning outcomes and prepare students for a knowledge-based economy. Key reforms include developing a long-term roadmap, internationalizing higher education, strengthening research and innovation ecosystems, improving coordination across ministries, empowering local authorities, and offering micro-credentials to make education more flexible for students. These reforms aim to boost Indonesia's PISA scores, university rankings, and overall competitiveness over the next 15 years.

1. Rebuilding Post
Pandemic
Indonesia

2. Why should education take
a leading role?
• There was a legendary question that Emperor Hirohito
immediately asked to his generals after defeated by the
Allied Forces in 1945: "how many teachers do we have
left?”
• Japan comes out of the war as the real winner by ruling
the world’s economy post second world war.
• The fact is that Post WWII Japan became the world
economic power by educating their people.

3. Why should education take a leading role?

4. …but education or schools
cannot do it alone!
• Education systems do not function in
a vacuum; they are part of broader
economic, political, and social
institutions.
• Education can also deepen cleavages
between favoured and disadvantaged
groups.
• Leaders sometimes abuse education
systems for political ends and in ways
that reinforce autocracy or the social
exclusion of certain groups.
• However, schooling is not the same
as learning. Schooling is the time a
student spends in classrooms,
whereas learning is the outcome—
what the student takes away from
schooling.
• It is clear that if ones need to know
the benefits of education, they
should focus on whether students
are learning—not just on how well
schools are equipped or even how
long students stay in school.
Source: World Development Report 2018

5. Impact of Covid-19
pandemic on socio-
economy and
education in Indonesia
• The coronavirus has infected two
million people since the first
confirmed cases in March 2020 and
around fifty five thousands have died
in Indonesia.
• There is one in ten people in Indonesia
today are living below the national
poverty line.
• Many households that were previously
economically secure in the middle of
the income distribution have either
become poor or are at risk of
becoming poor.

6. Impact of Covid-19
pandemic on socio-
economy and education
in Indonesia (cont.)
• Almost three in four parents are
concerned about learning loss due to
disruptions to their children’s education.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has led to
school closures in Indonesia, forcing
more than 68 million young Indonesians
out of their classrooms.
• Younger and lower-income students in
rural areas may not be able to benefit
fully from the online learning.
• They are also lack access to a computer
or mobile devices, run out of data, lack
electricity.
• While they are required also to do
household work and other tasks, and/or
if their parents are unable to fully
support their learning needs.

7. Let’s see some
facts in dealing
with Covid-19
• Indonesia ranks among the top five countries
in the Asia Pacific region in terms of the total
amount devoted to combatting COVID-19
(ADB, 2021)
• The government of Indonesia has introduced a
massive fiscal stimulus package through the
National Economic Recovery (PEN) program
• In 2020 the government allocated IDR 695.2
trillion (approximately US$ 49 billion) to the
program
• With the crisis still unfolding, the government
announced a budget of IDR 699.43 trillion
(approximately US$ 49.3 billion) in February
2021 for the continuation of the PEN program
this year (Kemenkeu, 2021)
• The government has spent Rp 9 trillion for
free internet token 35-50GB for students,
teachers and lecturers last year (2020).

8. What is
Indonesia
current PISA
scores?

9. Indonesia PISA score
from 2000 - 2018
• Looking at the fact that within the last 18 years there is no significant
improvement of PISA score it will be difficult if not to say impossible to overtake
Singapore, Vietnam even Thailand or Malaysia.
• World Bank research stated it will take 45 years in reading and 75 years in sciences
to be at par with other countries in ASEAN.
• Despite recent growth in learning as measured by the PISA, it will take 50 years for
Indonesia to reach the average OECD score (World Bank 2018a).

10. Projected trends in PISA scores: Current (4 months), Optimistic (6 months) and Pessimistic
Scenarios (8 months)
Source: Noah Yarrow, Eema Masood and Rythia Afkar – The World Bank Report , 2020

11. Learning crisis?
• Between 2000 and 2014, Indonesia witnessed major
progress in junior and senior secondary enrolment.
• It was found that despite this progress, learning
levels remained low.
• The major barriers to learning, which in Indonesia
appear not to be financing, teacher qualifications, or
teacher-student ratios; they could be the duration of
exposure to mathematics or incentives to learn, but
more study is needed to uncover the primary
barriers to improving learning.
• Indeed, a study examining the impacts of the teacher
compensation component of the teacher
certification law of 2005 showed that it had no
impact on learning (de Ree et al., 2018).
• Many policy makers do not realize how low learning
levels are.
• Others do not acknowledge them or simply equate
low learning with low resources.

12. So what may be the root cause of the problems?
• The average student in low-income
countries performs worse than 95 percent
of the students in Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) countries—meaning that student
would be singled out for remedial attention
in a class in a wealthier country (Crouch
and Gove, 2011).
• In Colombia, Indonesia, and Peru, student
performance at the 75th percentile on the
PISA math test is barely above that at the
25th percentile of the OECD average.
• Family socioeconomic status significantly
affects students’ average PISA scores.
• Teachers often lack the needed skills and
motivation.
• School management skills are low,
especially schools in low and middle
income countries.

13. Spending is still relatively low and can be better targeted
• Although Indonesia officially allocates 20
percent of its national budget to
education, it is spending less, as a
percentage of GDP, than comparable
countries.
• Indonesia’s expenditure on education as
a percentage of GDP was 3.3 percent in
2014, falling to 3.0 percent in 2018,
compared with spending by Malaysia at
4.7 percent in 2017 and Vietnam at 4.4
percent in 2016 (UNESCO).
• Furthermore, Indonesia is among the
countries with the lowest expenditure in
PPP terms among countries participating
in PISA (World Bank 2018d).

14. What shall we do to improve the PISA scores?
Among others we should:
• Reform teacher recruitment system by
recognising individual talent on teaching.
• Train those selected teacher candidates
individually to a level they will become
confidence on teaching their own
chosen expertise.
• Let them teach a class under a close
supervision and guidance of a Master
Teacher (mentor).
• Implement active learning in the class
room.
• However, I shall not go in details to
discuss PISA scores at this occasion.

15. Let’s have
a look at
our higher
education
As this contributes directly
into quality of our skilled
workforce

16. Universities in Indonesia
and Malaysia in QS World
University Ranking 2022
• Most of Malaysian universities drop significantly in
2022
• UGM remains at 254 and Universitas Indonesia climbs
up significantly to 290 (2022) from 305 (2021)

17. International education
service as a commodity?
• Why not? It is not a taboo.
• As long as it is NOT a degree mill.
• Revenue may be used to cross-subsidy educational
budget.
• Gaining international reputation as the hub for
educational provider.
• History of education in Indonesia dates back since many
hundred years ago from Hindu Empire till the Islamic
ruler.

18. Number of international
students in Malaysia and
Australia
• Due to Covid-19 Malaysia failed to achieve its target in
2020
• For the same reason Australia has punched a hole of
Aus. $ 2 billion on its economy

19. Revenue from
international students
in Malaysia and
Australia
• Malaysian Education Ministry secretary-general,
Mohd Ghazali Abas said in 2019:” foreign students are
expected to generate RM15.6 billion when we hit our
target of 200,000 international students by the year
2020”
• From 2013 to 2019 the export income generated from
international students studying in Australia rose
steadily each year, to a total of 37.6 billion Australian
dollars in 2019.
• Apart from the revenue international students are
also carrying intangible benefits for those countries
i.e. research, publication, intellectual property right,
international respect and prestige.

20. Australian universities
with significant
revenues from
international students

23. Why should we involve in
international education arena?
• Monash University Australia is the first foreign
university to open campus in Indonesia.
• Central Queensland University (CQU) Australia
has also been collaborating with a local private
university delivering courses in bachelor and
masters level.
• “Higher education is a service. Sending our
students abroad means that we are importing
the service of education. To the US, for example,
we partially contribute to the US$42 billion and
450,000 jobs that they create from foreign
students,” said Chairil Abdini, a lecturer in public
policy at Universitas Indonesia.

24. So what can we do then?
• Select few universities who are willing and capable
of going global.
• Take extra miles by targeting some countries which
traditionally sending their students overseas.
• Identify their prime requirements which may be
provided by some selected universities in
Indonesia.
• Assign universities in Indonesia that matching to
their requirements to fulfil all the needful (Quality
Assurance, Accreditation system).
• Work together with relevant authorities at
ministerial levels to provide student visas and
passes and health and social insurance.

25. Why should we look into ASEAN
and Asian for international
students?
• 660 million population of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) is comparable to that of continental Europe.
• According to the United Nations, the region is home to about one in 11 of the
world’s 15- to 24-year-olds.
• ASEAN has 20 million students in tertiary education has enrolment rates averaging
around 40 per cent
• However, East Asia (China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea, South
Korea, and Taiwan) has enrolment rates of 90 percent. And South Asia (Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives) has around
25 percent enrolment rates.
• Marty Natalegawa, Indonesia’s former foreign minister and author of “Does ASEAN
Matter? A View from Within, says that “the prospect for higher education growth in
ASEAN cannot be underestimated”.
• In 2015, regional leaders signed the Kuala Lumpur Declaration, which cites higher
education as “one of the catalysts in accelerating ASEAN’s economic, political and
sociocultural development agenda”.

26. Why should we look into ASEAN
and Asian for international
students? (Cont…)
• Stuart Gietel-Basten, an expert on Asian demographics and professor of social
science and public policy at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
warns that favourable population figures alone will not drive expansion.
“Demography is not destiny. You have to look at the available resources, systems,
institutions and governance,”
• Many countries in the region continue to be beset by rural poverty, outdated
infrastructure and political instability.
• Sharifah Munirah Alatas, an expert in strategic studies and international relations at
the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, sees political interference as “Malaysia’s
biggest challenge to education excellence and growth”
• Many commentators have suggested that the rise of online education during
lockdowns could make higher education more accessible.
• However, urban households in Malaysia are grappling with having “many children in
a less-than-conducive home set-up”

27. Why should we look into ASEAN
and Asian for international
students? (Cont…)
• Malaysian university student hiking into the woods and climbing a tree in an
attempt to get a wi-fi signal strong enough to complete her online exams.
• Economically, the pandemic has affected millions of households, which is a major
reason why their higher education is being deferred by students,” Alatas says.
• ASEAN claims to have about 7,000 higher education institutions in which is
estimated that there are more than 4,000 universities.
• That potential makes South-East Asia particularly fertile ground for higher
education.
• In 2015, regional leaders signed the Kuala Lumpur Declaration, which cites higher
education as “one of the catalysts in accelerating ASEAN’s economic, political and
sociocultural development agenda”.
• Singapore has two institutions in the top 50, however none of other ASEAN nation
made it at the top 300.
• There are three member states have no ranked universities at all: Cambodia, Laos
and Myanmar.

29. Why should
we look at
the Global
Knowledge
Index?
• The GKI, produced annually since 2017, is a
summary measure for tracking the knowledge
performance of countries at the level of seven
areas. It aims to measure the multifaceted concept
of knowledge.
• The GKI aims to introduce a more systematic
understanding of knowledge by breaking down
the concept into its constituent components, thus
recognizing the multidimensional nature of
knowledge systems in all contexts and
applications relating to economic and social
structures.
• Indonesia is ranked 81 out of 138 countries.

30. How is ASEAN doing in Global Knowledge Index ranking?

31. Each Component of ASEAN-6 Global Knowledge Index
Source: Dr. Chairil Abdini (2021)

32. Global
Knowledge
Index -
Indonesia

33. Global
Knowledge
Index –
Indonesia
(cont.)

34. Indonesia’s
sectoral indices
vs global
average
On average Indonesia’s sectoral
indices are below to those of
global ones except on two
sectors, i.e. economy and ICT.

35. The Promise of Education in Indonesia
(The World Bank, 2019)
• GOAL 1: Boost learning
Recommendation: Ensure that students reach at least minimum learning and development
standards at each level of the system.
• GOAL 2: Provide learning for all
Recommendation: Act to improve learning outcomes of the lowest performers.
• GOAL 3: Start early
Recommendation: Make quality early childhood education accessible to all.
• GOAL 4: Serve everyone
Recommendation: Ensure that all students, including the disabled, succeed.
• GOAL 5: Improve teaching
Recommendation: Improve teacher recruitment, training, and professional development;
experiment with incentives to increase accountability.
• GOAL 6: Increase learning for employment
Recommendation: Expand access and improve the quality of TVET and tertiary education.
• GOAL 7: Manage for performance
Recommendation: Strengthen accountability mechanisms.
• GOAL 8: Align institutions for learning
Recommendation: Support existing institutions to improve service delivery.

36. The way forward
Having gone through all of those facts and findings,
Indonesia needs to:
1. Start reforming totally its education systems by
detailing and charting in a detail roadmap what
shall be done in a given time span (2020 – 2035).
2. Develop an educational ecosystem based on
research and innovation by utilising our own
strengths and competitive advantages.
3. Initiate internationalisation of (higher) education
to move into knowledge economy rather than
exploiting our cheap labour.
4. Integrate and align the relevant ministerial
organisations to achieve common objectives.
5. Cascade down the mechanism into lower level by
empowering province and district level.
6. But pay attention to detail! I predict students in
the future will not want to be put inside readily
available boxes (study program we call it).
7. Here to bearing in mid: Micro-credential is the
way forward!