VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Vice President KH Ma'ruf Amin

Indonesian Vice President Ma'ruf Amin drew importance to the key role of superior human resources (HR) in winning the global competition.

To this end, improving the quality of human resources became a priority in development programs.

"We face huge challenges in the efforts to boost the capacity of human resources that is the government's top priority," Vice President Amin stated while delivering his remarks at the graduation ceremony of the Open University Academic Year 2019-2020 on Tuesday.

Citing the data of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2019, Amin pointed out that the number of people receiving higher education opportunities were still quite limited. Amin noted that merely 9.7 percent of Indonesia's population had the opportunity to pursue higher education.

"Of the population of 126.57 million aged 15 years and above that worked, the survey of the National Labor Force (Sakernas) in August 2019 indicated that some 12.27 million, or 9.7 percent, had the opportunity to enjoy higher education and become university graduates," he explained.

In the face of such conditions, Amin noted that the government had continually endorsed greater access to higher education in Indonesia, including through expanding the presence of the open university in the regions.

"The open university also shoulders huge responsibility in the efforts to boost capacity, among others, by encouraging greater access to education, including higher education," the vice president affirmed.

Furthermore, the community's gross enrollment rate (APK) for continuing higher education is yet under 40 percent. Hence, the open university is expected to be a solution to boosting the APK through the distance learning system.

"The open university is expected to improve the APK to become better. This is also in accordance with the government's road map in providing higher education on an unlimited scale and affordable costs for the community," he affirmed.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, highlighted the quality of human resources as the foundation for the nation’s development.

"In future, we must build a foundation of quality human resources, with mastery in science and technology," the president noted through his Instagram account, Jokowi.  (ANTARA)