Government Wants to Raise Educational Attainment of Indonesian Labor Force

GRESIK, KOMPAS.com – During a visit to East Java, Minister Muhadjir Effendy revealed that more than half or 54 percent of the Indonesian labor force have a middle-school education or lower.

Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister of Human Development and Cultural Affairs Muhadjir Effendy also pointed out how the government is working to assist 13 million unemployed workers find jobs.

The breakdown of the 13 million comes from 7 million unemployed people pre-pandemic plus another 3 million during the pandemic, and an additional 3 million unemployed workers in Indonesia, who are fresh graduates from university, high school, or vocational school levels.

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Muhadjir’s assessment was that the level of education affects the Indonesian labor force especially as companies and industry players adopt certain education standards when recruiting workers.

“At this moment, the Indonesian labor force is not well off. Why? Because 54 percent of Indonesia’s workforce only graduated from middle school or lower levels of education. Those who graduated high school or vocational schools make up 30 percent of the Indonesian labor force and the rest and university graduates.”

Due to the situation facing the national labor force, the Indonesian government is aiming to change the structure whereby the majority education level of Indonesia’s workforce would be high school or vocational school levels.

One of the measures to realize such aspirations is through the Indonesia Smart Card (KIP) with the objective of ensuring no child will have to forcibly end their education.

KIP is particularly aimed at low-income Indonesian families who do not have many financial means and through the program, children are guaranteed to earn an education until they are at high school or vocational school levels.

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“Through the president’s KIP policy, we hope that by 2025, 70 percent of the Indonesian labor force will be high school or vocational school graduates and above.”

The government has also offered Early Childhood Education at various villages across the country thus helping to minimize the likelihood of children dropping out of elementary school.

When it comes to the Indonesian labor force, Muhadjir shared that the government is continuously aiming for new breakthroughs to assist and facilitate job seekers.

Muhadjir mentioned the Job Creation Law as one of the strategies in improving Indonesia’s workforce despite significant public disapproval of the newly approved regulation, particularly among the laborers and workers who feel they are unfairly treated.

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“If there is something that is missing then let us perfect it. There is no one regulation that is perfect upon creation as there are always some drawbacks. There will always be one side that benefits from it, another that stays mum, and the other is the disadvantaged group and they are the ones who make the loudest noise.”

(Writer: Gresik Contributor, Hamzah Arfah | Editor: Dony Aprian)

Source: https://regional.kompas.com/read/2020/11/14/12383961/menko-pmk-sebut-54-persen-angkatan-kerja-indonesia-tamatan-smp-ke-bawah?page=all#page2