Nadiem References Jokowi's Mandate on Education Digitalisation in Chromebook Trial

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Former Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, Nadiem Makarim, alluded to the President’s directives regarding education digitalisation while undergoing trial for alleged corruption in the procurement of Chromebook-based laptops at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Monday (11/5/2026).

During the trial, Nadiem explained the reasons for bringing a number of technology talents into the ministry environment.

According to him, this step was related to the mandate from the Head of State at that time, Joko Widodo (Jokowi), which he received during a cabinet meeting on the digital transformation of education.

Nadiem then elaborated that education digitalisation was one of the directives discussed in the government’s limited meeting.

He stated that his ministry was tasked with building various application platforms to support the national education process.

He continued that the need to bring in technology personnel arose because the ministry required the capability to build large-scale applications to support the national education system.

“Indonesia’s education system is the fourth largest in the world. Building applications requires a level of competence that can only be obtained from people who have experience creating large-scale applications,” he said.

“Please do not casually invoke the President’s name in the trial,” the prosecutor said.

The panel of judges then requested that the defendant be given the opportunity to explain his answer fully.

“What is being asked should be allowed; let the defendant be given the chance to answer,” the judge said during the trial.

In response to the interruption, Nadiem emphasised that his explanation was directly related to the prosecutor’s question about the reasons for recruiting people with technology backgrounds to the ministry.

“The prosecutor’s question is why I brought people from the technology field to help the ministry. This is my answer. So my answer is very relevant to the prosecutor’s question,” Nadiem said.

“That is the function of the technology team, the wartek team or whatever it’s called, GovTech and so on, to realise the President’s vision for education digitalisation, and the results are very clear: the creation of applications used by millions of teachers,” Nadiem stated.