Nadiem Makarim: 'We Have to Bring In Outsiders'
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18 October 2022 20:29 WIB
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).
