"60 years ago, Asian and African nations sent their delegates to the Asian African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia. It was our educated leaders who initiated the conference and made a difference. They brought up the idea that our nation is a unity of diverse cultural and geographical entities to other Asian and African countries delegates.”
It was the speech of the Minister of Education and Culture of Indonesia, Anies Baswedan, Ph.D. in the opening ceremony of the National Seminar at YSU Faculty of Engineering, held by the YSU Alumni Association (Saturday, April 25th 2015).
Further Anies explained that the strategic framework of the Ministry of Education and Culture in 2015-2019 aims to develop quality human resources and education and culture in the spirit of character building and collaboration.
The strategic framework includes improving educational quality and access. One of the strategies is focused on the development of teachers, principals, leaders of educational institutions and students. It is also aimed at empowering cultural practitioners in preserving and developing Indonesian culture. The policies will include developing autonomous behaviors and personality.
“We have to improve the students participation in the teaching and learning process. A question for all of us, when was the last time we asked our children about what they expect from their schools?” he said.
The other focus of this strategy is also on the students participation in 12 years of compulsory education by improving access to education especially for disadvantaged children and citizens. One of the policies is based the need to accelerate the education quality improvement to prepare the students in the global competition by considering the existing diversity.
The next focus of the strategy is improving the effectiveness of bureaucracy through improving management and public involvement in implementing the policies based on empirical data. There is also a need to improve the coordination and collaboration among sectors in the national level.
After officially opening the seminar, Anies was invited to be a keynote speaker in a discussion held by members of YSU Student Executive Board.