The National Education System Bill and the Path Towards a Learning Society
Education is entering a new era. Artificial intelligence is changing the way humans work, the digital economy is giving birth to previously unknown professions, and knowledge is evolving in a matter of months. The Future of Jobs Report 2025, published by the World Economic Forum, estimates that around 39 percent of core job skills will change before 2030. This shift marks the birth of an era where learning no longer takes place in a single phase of life, but becomes a lifelong necessity.
As the world moves in this direction, Indonesia is currently deliberating the National Education System Bill (RUU Sisdiknas). The codification of the National Education System Law, the Higher Education Law, and the Teachers and Lecturers Law is an important step in updating education regulations. The public certainly hopes that this new regulation will provide a direction capable of answering future challenges.
A reading of the draft bill reveals a fairly comprehensive regulatory structure. Arrangements regarding national education standards, governance, institutions, quality assurance, accreditation, guidance, and the division of authority have received extensive attention. All of these have an important function in building an orderly and accountable education system.
There is one question worth asking: Where is the position of the right to learn as the main idea connecting this entire structure? This question is important because the challenges facing Indonesian education today have shifted. The issue is no longer limited to the opportunity to enter school or university. The far more decisive issue is the ability of every citizen to continuously obtain learning opportunities at every stage of their life.
Towards the Right to Learn
For several decades, education development in various countries has focused on fulfilling the right to education. The measurements are relatively easy to observe through school participation rates, the number of educational units, the availability of teachers, and access to higher education. Indonesia has recorded significant progress on these various indicators. Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) for 2024 shows that the average years of schooling for the Indonesian population has reached 9.22 years, while the Expected Years of Schooling continues to increase, approaching 14 years. This achievement reflects the increasingly broad access of the public to education services. However, this progress in access has not fully answered the challenges of the times.
The OECD, in Education at a Glance 2024, reminds us that educational success in the 21st century is increasingly determined by society’s ability to update skills throughout life. Education is seen as a continuous process, following technological, economic, and social dynamics. UNESCO, through its report Reimagining Our Futures Together (2021), even proposed the birth of a learning society, a society that makes learning a shared culture, not an activity that ends when someone receives a diploma. This paradigm develops from the understanding that the right to education is a gateway to a broader right, namely the right to continue learning.
This thinking has a strong scientific foundation. Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary S. Becker, in Human Capital (1993), explained that education is an investment that continuously generates value throughout a person’s life. This investment requires continuous competency renewal. Meanwhile, John Dewey, since the early 20th century, reminded us that education is a process of life itself, not merely preparation for life. Dewey’s idea feels increasingly relevant when change occurs much faster than the lifespan of a curriculum.
Indonesia is facing the same changes. Digitalisation, automation, and artificial intelligence are changing the competency needs of the workforce. Many new types of jobs are being born, while some old jobs are undergoing very rapid transformation. The world of education faces the challenge of preparing citizens who are able to learn again, adapt, and update their knowledge throughout their lives. The National Education System Bill has a great opportunity to answer these challenges through a paradigm shift.
The draft bill shows great attention to the institutional and governance aspects of education. This choice is understandable because the education system does require a strong administrative foundation. However, Indonesia needs to go one step further, namely making the right to learn the spirit that drives the entire national education system. The right to learn has a broader meaning than the right to attend school. The right to learn includes the opportunity to acquire new competencies at every phase of life, recognition of learning experiences gained outside formal education, cross-disciplinary learning, development of digital skills, and more flexible access to further education. Various countries have moved in this direction through lifelong learning policies, micro-credentials, and recognition of prior learning.
The OECD, through the Learning Compass 2030, places the ability to learn, anticipate change, and create new value as core competencies of the 21st century. Education is understood as a process that continues to evolve along with a person’s life journey. This perspective aligns with the sustainable development goals that place lifelong learning as part of the basic rights of every citizen. This view has a strong resonance with the thinking of H.A.R. Tilaar. In his book, Social Change and Education (2002), he asserted that education is a civilising process that enables humans to develop themselves continuously. Education provides a space for society to adapt to change without losing its human values.