TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology said that they will increase the capacity of the medical faculties by 20 percent. A ministry official said that the plan is made to anticipate the increasing demand for health workers.

The capacity increase will be implemented starting the next academic year.

"The demand for health workers continues to increase in accordance with the health projections of 2025. Therefore, we need to take steps to accelerate the availability of health workers. The efficient way is to add more medical faculties, which has proven effective," Nizam, the ministry's acting director-general for higher education, research, and technology, said in Jakarta, Thursday, May 19.

Nizam said that the medical faculties that are allowed to increase their capacity are those accredited as A and B faculties. "[The capacity increase] will also be adjusted to the quality and capacity of the respective faculty."

The Ministry of Education is also preparing four new medical faculties in provinces that still don't have them, which are West Sulawesi, Bangka Belitung, North Kalimantan, and Riau Islands.

"This is our effort to equalize the availability of doctors in Indonesia," he said, adding that the government wants to prioritize opening medical faculties in remote areas, where doctors are desperately needed.

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