RI, Australia to forge accord on education
JAKARTA (JP): Senior Indonesian and Australian officials met yesterday to develop a cooperation program in relation to education and vocational training.
The recent diplomatic tiff over Jakarta's appointed ambassador to Australia did not appear to have any effect on the proceedings or the atmosphere.
Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro, who helped launch the two-day conference, said the education cooperation program between the two countries would go on.
"There is no connection between the case of the Indonesian ambassador and the cooperation in vocational training," he said.
Saying that the problem of the current absence of an Indonesian ambassador to Australia was a matter for the two countries' foreign ministries to resolve, Wardiman added that the decision of the Indonesian government earlier this month to withdraw Ambassador Mantiri was not at all similar to the policy adopted by Jakarta in 1992, when, after a diplomatic row, it refused to receive any further financial or other aid from the government of the Netherlands.
At that time several educational programs financed by Dutch aid were badly affected.
Wardiman, accompanied by Australia's Minister for Schools, Vocational Education and Training Ross Free, held a joint press conference yesterday after they officially opened the conference on "Education and Training for Industry Growth" at the Jakarta Convention Center.
Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief also attended the meeting.
The conference is being attended by 400 participants, comprised of officials and professionals from Australia and Indonesia.
Seventy speakers are scheduled to present their views on training in the tourist, mining, engineering, building and construction and telecommunications industries.
"The conference is aimed at enhancing mutual understanding of the policy program in vocational training, building industrial networks, identifying future practical cooperative action, as well as facilitating industrial linkages," Free said.
To support the cooperation program, Free opened last night the office of the Australian International Education Foundation.
The mission of foundation, an agency of the Australian government, is to encourage the contribution of Australian education and training providers to global intellectual, cultural technological and economic growth.
Wardiman said the conference, a follow-up to last year's meeting, was important in developing Indonesia's resources.
He said that, in the coming era of economic interdependence, trade between any two countries would need qualified and highly professional personnel.
Canberra has already provided various scholarships for Indonesian teachers and students to study in Australia.
During the past five years the Australian government has been extending financial aid to Indonesian vocational institutions.
In the provision of Australian aid, priority has been given to Indonesia's less-developed eastern regions.
The total number of Indonesian students studying in Australia, including those who pay their own tuition fees and lodging, is approximately 13,000. (03)