Singaraja- The jump in the allocation of the education budget that was conveyed by the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo in the DPD and DPR RI sessions by setting a figure of Rp. 505.8 trillion received the attention of an academic from the University of Education of Ganesha (Undiksha), Prof. Dr. I Wayan Lasmawan, M.Pd. This is considered proof of the government’s concern for how strategic and urgent the education sector is in producing superior human resources in the future.
It’s just that, according to him, how to increase the budget allocation can be answered correctly by the relevant ministries through the implementation of activities or programs. “The availability of the budget allocation should be able to answer the current basic problems of national education,” he said. Improving the spirit and skills of innovation, thinking skills, literacy revolution 4.0, and the creation of innovative jobs by graduates of educational institutions are considered to be things that need serious attention from the government.
In addition, it is hoped that the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education will be able to translate the vision of an advanced Indonesia put forward by the President by improving governance regulations and the quality of the performance of educational apparatus from upstream to downstream. Including how to provide adequate facilities and infrastructure, improve the competence of teaching staff (teachers and lecturers), the quality of learning, improve the recruitment system, empower, supervise, and evaluate the performance of education sector actors in a transparent and accountable manner. “The quality of education must be able to be in line with the demands of the 4.0 revolution era and the construction of future human resources needed by the world market share,” he said.
In addition to paying attention to the central government, the academic who is also Undiksha’s Deputy Chancellor II said educational institutions must also make a tit-for-tat movement towards the budget allocation policy. There is no attitude fixated on administrative regulations. But it must also take strategic steps to improve the quality that is needed in the face of global competitiveness. “Educational institutions must be proactive in creating various HR management strategies and models, learning practices, performance appraisals, and quality gains in various sectors,” he said.
The additional allocation of the education budget will also be meaningless if it has not been matched by changes in the mental and moral skills of the actors. For this reason, it is important to develop a performance measurement mechanism for educational implementers that is able to measure transparent and accountable personal and institutional performance achievements through the system. “So that improvements in the education sector are not centralized only on “learning practices and continuous improvement of the curriculum” but the quality of educational achievements is slow moving or the quality achievements are not in line with expectations,” said the Doctoral graduate of the Indonesian University of Education (UPI), Bandung.
According to him, education is a holistic process that includes the liberation of students from ignorance, helplessness, incompetence, and dishonesty. To make this happen, education should be developed with reference to the suitability of the talents, interests, abilities, needs, characteristics, and learning styles of students. “That’s real quality education. The management of education must be filled by the right people and have the same vision as the vision of advanced Indonesia, namely to educate all the nation’s children wrapped in Indonesian values and character towards global competition,” he said.
Improving the education sector with an adequate budget allocation according to the academic who holds a professorship at the age of 36 also needs to be directed at efforts to strengthen local values and national culture in the entire education process itself. “So don’t let our educational practices lead to the fragility of the roots of the nation’s values in the self-esteem of the nation’s children in the future. For this reason, a character education model must be developed, including anti-corruption education as an independent subject from elementary to higher education,” he explained. Through a number of strategic steps, it is believed that there will no longer be a centralization of the quality of education in one area but spread evenly and standardized from Sabang to Merauke, towards an advanced Indonesia. “This is in line with the theme of commemorating the 2019 Proclamation of Independence, namely quality human resources for the Advanced Nation,” he added. (rls)
