Yogyakarta-The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology as the leader of the G20 Education Working Group (EdWG) held the inaugural meeting of the G20 Education Working Group which was held on March 16-17th, 2022. In the opening of the event, Indonesia invited the world to work together to organize and rebuild the education system.
At this meeting, 27 countries discussed four main agendas. First, Universal Quality Education, state representatives shared their experiences in improving inclusivity and equitable education during the pandemic and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Second, Digital Technologies in Education, discusses the country's efforts to utilize digital technology to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and considers the development of a more inclusive and adaptive education.
Third, Solidarity and Partnership, emphasizes the importance of solidarity and partnership in order to create a resilient and effective education system. Fourth, The Future of Work Post Covid-19, state representatives conveyed strategies and good practices to support the transformation of higher and vocational education in providing equitable access to higher and vocational education levels.
Iwan Syahril, as the Chairman of the G20 Education Working Group, invited G20 countries to work together globally to face education problems due to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Iwan, children cannot continue to wait for schools to reopen and experience learning loss, it is not a matter of not entering classes or failing exams, but rather the threat of losing children to learn and losing confidence.
In addition to the four main topics of discussion in the G20, the field of higher education had the opportunity to conduct bilateral meetings with parties from Australia and France. It aims to discuss a more specific cooperation plan.
At the meeting, acting Secretary of the Directorate General of Higher Education, Research, and Technology, Tjitjik Srie Tjahjandarie raised several issues in the fields of higher education, research, and technology.
Tjitjik proposed several points of cooperation with the Australian side, including in the field of qualification recognition, the implementation of Kampus Merdeka through the Indonesia International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA) program, the Joint Working Group program, and cooperation in research and innovation development through the framework of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
"We've partnered pretty closely with Australia. We encourage Australia to also open apprenticeship and internship opportunities for Indonesian students to Australia. Of course, with the scheme that will be determined through Kampus Merdeka program. After the success, universities can duplicate this form of activity, so that many Indonesian students have global insight and are competitive," said Tjitjik.
Not much different, the meeting with the French side also discussed strengthening the implementation of the Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka program through the IISMA program. The French side, represented by Philomene Robin, University Cooperation Attaché of the Institut Français D'indonésie, said it would mobilize its universities to participate in the MBKM program. Therein lies target of the IISMA program is to collaborate with the world's top 100 universities in France and the best universities or acknowledged in France.
"We support the Kampus Merdeka program by mobilizing universities in France so that more universities can participate, especially in the IISMA program," said Philomene.
Meanwhile, in the field of research and innovation, University to University (UtoU) cooperation has been established between Indonesian and French universities.