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Director General of Information and Public Communication at the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, Usman Kansong. (ANTARA/Fathur Rochman) - 

The Ministry of Communication and Informatics is continuing to bolster efforts to increase people's digital literacy in a bid to prevent hoaxes from spreading, a ministry's official stated.

Until 2021, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics had implemented the digital literacy program for around 12.5 million Indonesian people.

"Over 10 million Indonesians participated in our digital literacy program and have become digitally literate this year," Director General of Information and Public Communication at the Ministry of Communication and Informatics Usman Kansong stated in Tangerang on Wednesday.

According to Kansong, digital literacy could prevent hoaxes from spreading. In addition, it would help create a better digital space, with more citizens possessing skills in using social media.

The ministry instills digital skills, digital ethics, digital culture, and digital security among members of the community.

Digital skills help people to become adept at using digital technology, while digital ethics educate people on how to use digital technology wisely and ethically.

Digital culture educates the public to use social media by prioritizing cultural values, such as the values of Pancasila, nationalism, and diversity, he added.

By instilling them, the ministry encourages people to not make and spread hoaxes, Kansong noted.

"Let us fill public spaces with good messages," he stressed.

The Ministry of Communication and Informatics has targeted that by the end of 2024, as many as 50 million Indonesians will have received the basic level of digital literacy training.

In addition to digital literacy, the ministry continues to monitor the cyberspace to prevent the spread of harmful content, including hoaxes.

Kansong said his ministry utilizes artificial intelligence technology called AIS and has a special team for capturing negative content. The ministry also receives the community's reports on negative content.

When negative content is found, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics will take down the content, he noted//ANT

Hendra Yetty, head of the Yogyakarta Crafts and Batik Agency under the Industrial Service Standardization and Policy Agency of the Industry Ministry. (ANTARA/HO-Humas BBKB Yogyakarta) - 

The Yogyakarta Crafts and Batik Agency, under the Industry Ministry's Industrial Service Standardization and Policy Agency, and the Indonesian Consulate General in Chicago, US, recently organized a batik design competition to introduce batik to US citizens.

"We expected the batik pattern design competition to introduce Indonesian batik to the general public in the United States and present feedback to us about the batik patterns preferred in the US," Yogyakarta Crafts and Batik Agency head Hendra Yetty said in Yogyakarta on Wednesday.

Submissions for the batik pattern design competition themed "Best of Both Worlds: How Batik Bridges the Two Nations" were opened in October 2021. The organizers targeted Indonesians in Indonesia, the Indonesian diaspora, and US nationals to join the competition, the agency head informed.

Out of the 250 submissions, the organizers selected the top 12 designs for the final selection stage, and the three winners will be announced onWednesday (December 29, 2021), she said.

"Besides introducing Indonesian batik, the competition has also been organized to probe Indonesian batik's market potential in the US; hence, batik industry actors can understand preferred batik designs in the states (US) and satisfy their batik demand," Yetty said.

The batik industry makes a major contribution to the national economy and provides job opportunities for thousands of people, she highlighted.

The industry, which is dominated by small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), employs 200 thousand people in 47 business units scattered across 101 regional batik centers nationwide, she informed.

"The batik industry has been prioritized for further development as the industry has provided a great leverage for national economic growth," the agency head said.

Besides contributing to the national economy, the national batik industry has become a global market leader and Indonesia's batik products are renowned in several countries, she added.

"Batik is the identity of Indonesians as this craft has been recognized as UNESCO's Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Furthermore, as batik is part of our creative industry, the art continues to be developed by the society," Yetty remarked//ANT

Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita during the year-end press conference in Jakarta on Wednesday (Dec 29, 2021). ANTARA/Sella Panduarsa Gareta - 

The manufacturing industry has become the main driving sector for Indonesia to recover from economic recession, Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita stated.

"The important role can be seen from the manufacturing industry's performance in several indicators, including investment, exports, imports, tax contributions, contributions to GDP, growth rates, purchasing managers index (PMI), and employment," he noted during his year-end press conference here on Wednesday.

The minister highlighted that the realization of investment in the manufacturing sector during the January-September 2021 period was recorded at Rp236.79 trillion, up 17.3 percent, as compared to investment during the corresponding period in 2020 of Rp201.87 trillion.

The base metal industry clocked the largest investment value followed by the food and beverage sector.

The realization of investment in 2021 is expected to exceed investment in 2020 recorded at Rp270 trillion.

Exports of the manufacturing industry continued to increase despite the COVID-19 pandemic. During the January-November 2021, it recorded exports valued at US$160 billion, or 76.51 percent of the total exports.

"The figure has exceeded the manufacturing exports achievement in 2020 of US$131 billion and is even higher than the exports in 2019 when the COVID-19 pandemic had not yet spread," he stated.

In comparison with the January-November 2020 period, exports during the same period of 2021 had increased by 35.36 percent, maintaining the trade surplus recorded since May 2020.

"The achievements of the manufacturing industry sector, in terms of investment and exports, have supported the industry's contribution to state revenues as well as the national GDP that continues to increase," Kartasasmita noted.

Taxes from the manufacturing sector during the year contributed 29 percent on an average to the national tax revenue, while excise revenue from the industry contributed 95 percent of the total excise revenue.

"As for the contribution to GDP, the manufacturing industry in the third quarter of 2021 has contributed 17.33 percent (to the GDP), the highest figure among other economic sectors," he pointed out//ANT

A screenshot of a press briefing on 'Realizing Advanced Indonesia Top Human Resources' in Jakarta on Wednesday (December 29, 2021). (ANTARA/Indriani/KT) - 

The emergency curriculum applied for learning recovery during the pandemic has been proven to have reduced the impact of learning loss, according to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology.

"The emergency curriculum is attested to reduce the impact of the loss of learning and opportunities due to the pandemic. In our count, the difference (from the 2013 curriculum) is approximately four months in time," secretary general of the ministry, Suharti, said during a briefing on the development of humans and culture entitled 'Realizing Advanced Indonesia Top Human Resources', here on Wednesday.

Based on a survey of 18,370 students at 612 schools conducted by the ministry, there was a significant difference in learning outcomes between the 2013 curriculum and the emergency curriculum, she informed.

According to the survey, had the pandemic and learning loss never happened, numeracy should have reached 522 points, she noted. However, because of the pandemic and the application of the emergency curriculum, numeracy increased to 517 points, she pointed out. Meanwhile, the 2013 curriculum gained 482 points in the same field, she said.

In terms of literacy, the achievement should have been 583, but due to the pandemic and the intervention of the emergency curriculum, it reached 570, while the achievement of the 2013 curriculum was 532, she added.

"The score difference between the 2013 and the emergency curriculum in both literacy and numeracy reached four months," Suharti said.

Therefore, students who study based on the emergency curriculum got better learning achievements than the full 2013 curriculum users, regardless of their socio-economic background, she added.

In addition, the ministry provided several forms of support to aid students' learning during the pandemic, such as free Internet quotas for educators and learners, single tuition (UKT) assistance, wage subsidies for non-civil servant teachers, distribution of learning modules, learning from home programs, development of digital education platforms, and Kampus Mengajar program//ANT