Chasing 2030: Prospects of Digital Education in Creation of Indonesian Education Equity
By : Fransisca Octaviani Panjaitan
Back in 2015, nations have come together to assemble in creating new goals and developments to tackle emerging issues within the world that continue to occur as repercussions of the system that still fails to cater to those in need the most. Today, we face a different crisis involving the pandemic and its extreme repercussions to our daily lives, including shifts in the way we learn and our conduct within the educational sector. Indonesia has been one of the most affected countries in the past two years, with multiple occurrences of long-distance learning bridging gaps and exposing the education system’s inequality towards different layers of society.
This is most apparent in rural areas of Indonesia, where throughout the years, multiple technological and digital obstacles have hindered the learning process of multiple students all around the archipelago. Such concerns have led to the talks about revolutionizing education — especially endorsed by the current Minister of Education, Nadiem Makarim — into a more digital and integrated learning environment, unlike the current one (Putra, 2021). However, such thoughts have always met criticism, from how this might further inequality to simply the thought that the nation is not ready, showing a divided discourse amongst scholars, policymakers, and researchers.
At the start of Makarim’s reign as Minister of Education, he has been vital in advocating for digital education proliferation in Indonesia, believing that the road to the future lies within EdTech. However, many were concerned with the idea, as it pushes a whole new level of development that requires rapid advancements. Several areas within Indonesia are yet to be close to the bare minimum, let alone this further extension and advancement to the digital world (Rosser, 2018). Nevertheless, when 2020 came crashing in with COVID-19, distance learning became necessary throughout the world.
Agenda of digital learning then became a priority (Wahid, 2021). As noted by Statista, there was an increase in the number of pupils in Indonesia. An estimated 37 percent of them spend much more time learning online every week, more specifically 1 to 2 hours. UNICEF also pointed out that such an increase created an incentive to spread digital learning accessible to everyone, with more funding and planning catered to the agenda. However, this expansion comes with a cost, where some get to live everyday lives, and others continuously fall behind with the ever fast-paced development of digital education.
The issue within these changes does not lie within the actual reformation to digitalization but rather the lack of inclusion and equity within regions regarding response to this digitalization. Rather than focusing on creating equality, there needs to be a shift to equity, catering to the specific needs of each region within the nation. As have been suggested by researchers, the UN, and other policymakers of similar entities, an improvement and focus of building efforts within certain regions would help the overall quality of education in Indonesia in general (Indonesia’s digital learning industry continues to expand, 2021).
However, an overall improvement in Indonesia’s education system requires more than just digitalization. In order to reach the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals commitment, the revolution needs to cater to broader aspects and spectrum of the issue. While the digitalization of the economy and the system has become inevitable, ignoring the needs of catering to grassroots perspectives may well cause disintegration between societies in Indonesia (Bajpai and Biberman, 2021). Part of instilling learning that is adaptable to current conditions requires listening and catering to pre-existing needs.
As the world shifts to a combination of the cyber and physical world, Indonesia follows the ongoing trend by investing in digital education companies such as Ruangguru and Zenius or expanding the economy into more digital platforms (Eloksari, 2020). The move makes much sense considering the digital competitiveness within the current working conditions of the nation and overall the globe. However, when considering creating quality education, is it to create a workforce that fits the conditions of modern working spaces, or is it to facilitate knowledge exploration at its utmost caliber?
Such a question has always been a relatively robust debate within the emergence of issues in creating quality education. However, something that is relatively clear is the intentions of Indonesia’s foreign policy regarding education, which tends to cater to the needs of globalization and accelerate programs to align with the needs of education within global demands. However, are such moves wise?
When picturing 2030 Indonesian education and ways to reach equity within multiple regions of the nation, creative and personalized approaches may be the best route to go. The idea of digitized education may allow remote learning and a wider variety of resources (Gysi,2018). however in order to provide such prospects, a mechanism that focuses more on strengthening resources that need to accommodate such things — such as skills within teachers and students to provide digital literacy or the focus on creating electricity and connection available in multiple regions in Indonesia. However, in investing in EdTech, one must be careful, as the initial creation of this industry was within the mind of creating a great workforce instead of catering to the needs of students personally in their path of learning.
The discourse on quality education and metrics to understand it will always be a sizeable, never-ending topic. However, one thing is clear, between the need to cater to the digital revolutions of the economic and education industry and the bridging of gaps within rural, indigenous, and city education, the discussion needs to understand the connections between those at the bottom at the structure and the fast-paced global demands. While providing platforms and more connections and resources may allow further access, quality education can only happen when ‘learning’ truly happens, which in the end still requires a middle-ground solution between digitalization, the economy, personalized learning tailored to the unique nature of Indonesian culture and grassroots students.
References
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