Government Strategy to Forge Santri into Competitive Digital Talent

Deputy Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs Nezar Patria has revealed Indonesia’s strategy to develop santri into excellent and competitive digital talent. The approach includes opening collaboration opportunities with pesantren as a second home for the students and expanding access to digital training and certification. “We have digital training that can be followed online and leads to competency certification, which is useful for entering the workforce,” Nezar said in a statement confirmed in Jakarta on Thursday. Beyond facilitating government-initiated digital literacy programmes, Nezar stated that the ministry is ready to support other initiatives involving pesantren in enhancing the community’s digital capacity. He noted that developing the digital skills of santri is crucial because graduates of Islamic boarding schools have diverse future career options, not only as preachers or religious teachers. During the audience, the Deputy Minister also encouraged digital literacy programmes within pesantren to evolve according to the rapidly changing needs of the times, particularly regarding the use of new technologies such as artificial intelligence. “Digital literacy now focuses more on improving skills or understanding of emerging technologies. For example, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and others,” he said. Therefore, adequate understanding is needed so that the use of AI is carried out critically and responsibly. “At the very least, there should be literacy on how we deal with this artificial intelligence. And I think in pesantren, this is very contextual,” he added. In addition to digital training and certification, the ministry is also offering collaboration opportunities in technology-based entrepreneurship programmes. These programmes complement the various digital training initiatives already run by the ministry’s Human Resources Development Agency. He expressed hope that collaboration with pesantren can strengthen digital literacy while improving community skills, so that they are not just technology users but also become developers and competitive players in the digital economy.