President Prabowo calls for education quality improvement and increased R&D investment

President Prabowo Subianto has urged stakeholders to continue working to improve the quality of education in order to catch up with developed countries and advance Indonesia’s human resources.

During a meeting with 150 researchers from the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) in the central courtyard of the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Thursday, the President highlighted Indonesia’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores, which are below those of several countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Japan.

“Our difficulties are enormous. This must not be used as a reason to conclude that we do not need to catch up on this gap,” the President said.

He noted that the situation cannot be compared with other countries such as Singapore, which has a much smaller territory, meaning the neighbouring country’s government does not face the same issues as Indonesia.

“This is what I mean. We have accepted this as, let us say, a warning, a correction, and we will look for ways to overcome it,” the President said.

To that end, he underlined the significant investment the government has already made in education to nurture the nation’s future generations.

Steps have also been taken to invite the managers of the world’s best universities to collaborate with campuses in Indonesia, as a measure to improve the quality of education in the country.

“We must correct ourselves as a nation. Our investment in research and development is very small. Far from what it should be. This is a correction for us, and going forward we will strive to improve it,” Prabowo Subianto said.