Indonesia Set To Take Big Pace In Education

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The government sets an ambitious target in education with holders of master degree to be increased seven times higher in ratio to the population in 10 years.

The number of Indonesians holding master degree would be increased to 16,000 from 2,300 at present per one million of the population in 2015, Finance Minister Bambang Bodjonegoro said.

The ratio for those holding doctorate is expected to shoot up to 1,400 per one million of the population from 143 at present, the minister said.

The increase in the ratio would contribute to expansion of the country's tertiary educational institutions with the availability of  larger number of qualified lecturers, he said.

For that purpose the government has set aside 20 percent of the state budget fund for education  and provide endowment fund for education, he said.

The endowment fund is held  and managed by the Education Fund Management Agency (LPDP) to be used to finance scholarships.

The minister said the government will continue efforts to improve the quality of the country's human resource  as the key factor in seeking to improve the economic welfare of the country.

He said currently Indonesia is placed  in the category of "lower middle income country", but southeast Asia's largest economy is expected to ranks among fastest growing economies.

Indonesia is the second fastest among 18 largest economies in the world including Japan, the United States, Turkey, South Korea, Brazil, India, China , and  Russia  in 2009-2015.

"In the future, our economy is expected to be more dominant to grow to become the 7th largest economy in then world in 2030," the minister said.

 LPDP is an agency under the finance ministry now holding Rp15.6 trillion in endowment fund derived from the state budgets in 2010-2013.  

The minister said the  endowment fund is expected to help create golden generation in Indonesia  in 2045.

He said the government hope to see the country  competitive in human resources more than in natural resources in 2045  when 75 percent of Indonesian youths of 19-23 years in age are studying at high educational institutes.

He said currently Indonesia has good momentum with domination of productive age  until 2035 with declining proportion of people of advanced age  and young children.

Based on data at the finance ministry  until the first half of 2015, there were 6,335 recipients of LPDP scholarship including 4,543 scholarship for master degree  and 878 for doctorate. (WDY)