Presidential candidates Joko Widodo, left, and Prabowo Subianto (JG screen grab)
Jakarta. Presidential Candidate Joko Widodo showcased his plan for a “Mental Revolution” in Indonesia. The plan means a focus on character building, and the fostering of resilience for Indonesia’s schoolchildren.
“Education is our foremost priority … character education, the betterment of our ethics and mentality,” Joko said.
Joko plans to bring about a massive change into the Indonesian education curriculum. The ratio between character education and scientific/technical education will be 80-20 in the primary school, which is the period where character education will get the highest proportion. That will be gradually phased out to 60-40 in middle school and 20-80 in high schools or vocational schools.
“That way, we will have a workforce that has good work ethics. We will have a workforce that has high productivity.”
Joko said that achieving this aim is of utmost importance to him. “Education is not negotiable. No matter how much it will cost, we will get it,” Joko said.
“Twelve years of compulsory education is our shared duty, so that Indonesia has a high level of competitiveness,” Joko said.
Jokowi said that the creative economy revolves around music, design, performance arts, but those currently are not sufficiently supported by the government.
As for creative economy, Prabowo said, “I only have one child, and he is in creative economy.”
“As a fashion designer he has emerged on the international scene. So regarding creative economy I am agreeing with Jokowi,” he said referring to Joko by his nickname.
He also said that the creative economy is a sector in which Indonesia can compete with other countries.
“The next leader has to invest heavily in education, so that we can be more competitive,” Prabowo said. “We have art talent, we have the creativity, this can bring in foreign reserves.”
By Josua Gantan & Dion Bisara on 10:08 pm Jun 15, 2014
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