TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Minister Nadiem Makarim answers questions regarding his ‘shadow team’ and the alleged conflict of interest, digitalization options, and the National Education System Bill.

Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Minister Nadiem Makarim explained the kind of changes he wished to bring in to the education sector through the "shadow organization" term uttered in his speech at the Transforming Education Summit at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, United States, last September.

“I was selected as the education minister to make a total transformation of the education system to prepare it for the future. One way is through digitalization,” he explained to Tempo reporters on October 14, 2022.

Accompanied by the ministry’s Head of Data and Information, Hasan Chabibie, Nadiem gave insights into his team, how it worked, and the alleged conflict of interest in establishing the team. He also explained the initiatives he had taken to boost teachers’ competency and shed light on the fate of the stalled National Education System Bill as well as the widespread practice of dishing out university degrees to government officials and politicians.

What does the term ‘shadow organization’ mean?

To be honest, it was a slip of the tongue. What I meant was “shadowing.” I should have said “shadowing organizations.” What I meant by ‘shadowing’ was that each of our directorate-general had the technological capacity of world-class talents. Everyone around the world applauses us for that. I think Indonesia should be proud of that too.

How does this team work?

Take the Education Standards, Curriculum and Assessment Agency (BSKAP) for example. When we wanted to change the national assessment system, it had to do it online. It would be impossible to train 300,000 school principals, for them to learn the content without the technology. So, we created the Education Report Card platform. The BSKAP first had a concept design and the problems they faced and asked the technology division to create a program. Then, in collaboration with the ministry’s Data and Technology Center, this team designed a user-friendly interface for all the data.

How is this team different from the state civil servant (ASN) staff at the ministry?

They are vendors. We conducted an auction and Telkom (state telecommunication company) won the tender to set up a tech team based on our specifications. So, it was Telkom that selected and recruited the people we needed.

Your speech seemed to confirm the fear of those within the ministry regarding the new team.

What is my job as a minister? Being a regulator is just a part of it. From the start, I was selected to make a complete transformation of the education system to prepare it for the future. One way is through digitalization. Imagine the education ministry that used to only oversaw the same curriculums, just like a regulator. Now we must replace them with new curriculums. It means designing new ones. We have to alter our assessment systems, teacher training and leadership programs through Guru Penggerak (Teacher Mover) from scratch. We have to recreate the system. All of this is an extremely taxing added workload for the ministry. That’s why many ministry staff don’t have enough sleep. That’s my fault. But I only have five years (to achieve it).

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How do you make sure the sustainability of the system you built after your term is over?

I have to try my best to make sure that the initiatives I introduced are extremely hard to reverse. Before initiating the programs, we always held challenge sessions with the leaders. One of the most crucial questions is: is the picture reversible or not? How difficult it is? We have looked at it one by one. What happens if, after a batch had the chance to complete one semester or 20 SKS (semester credits system) at Kampus Merdeka (Freedom Campus), the government suddenly shut down opportunities for their juniors? They will protest. Second, the Merdeka Mengajar platform now has a rating of 4.8 stars at the PlayStore with 1.6 million teacher users in Indonesia. Who wants to take it down? All the teachers are using it to study 55,000 training modules, and learn upskilling transition for Merdeka Curriculums. Who would dare pull the plug on it? I can’t guarantee it, but even though I will no longer be the minister, don’t forget my echelon I and II staff will still be here. I will leave this place knowing that it won’t be impossible but will be extremely difficult to reverse it. That’s our strategy.

Telkom’s appointment as a tender winner sparked allegations of conflict of interest because Telkom has stakes in Gojek, your company...

The saddest thing for me to do is having to explain this. First, I no longer have any connection with Gojek. When I became the minister, I quit all managerial and board member positions. I relinquished my voting shares. It means I have not even an iota of power, or authority whatsoever in Gojek, which now became GoTo. I can’t go there, I can’t control it, and I don’t even meet with the people there because I’m too busy here.

Second, what benefits do I get from this conflict of interest? Usually, there are benefits, right? But what benefits? Please enlighten me. Where can I gain benefits from this? It doesn’t make sense.

Third, we follow the auction process with the National Public Procurement Agency. We carried out the process by the book and monitored it from the start. And Telkom indeed came out as the winner.

You’ve often taken a hands-on role after this shadow team issue blew up.

Yes. As a leader, if we see disquiet, we should get our hands dirty and get involved. We had AMA (ask me anything) sessions.

Has there really been concern over it?

Yes, but after it was explained and they understood, not as substantial as before. There’s a small group of extremely anxious people that leaked (the information). But this group is not likely to disappear from the ministry.

What is the result of the communication with the president?

I reported to him. But perhaps I was a little naive. I thought that given the many positive benefits for teachers and also the 13 years of compulsory education, (the bill) would receive political support. It turned out not everyone had the same agenda.

Were many educational organizations involved in the deliberation of the bill?

We discussed it with dozens of organizations.

Merdeka Belajar was criticized because schools appear to be more interested in producing practitioners.

This education is to ensure that everyone gets the opportunities to create, express, and also receive economic opportunities. If I may clarify that question with a question, “If you don’t want to be a practitioner, what do you want to be?”

Read the Full Interview in Tempo English Magazine

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