Introduction

As was highlighted previously, Indonesia is seemingly experiencing a surplus of nurses. Such surpluses should be a blessing for the country with the fourth largest population in the world, especially considering the global shortage of nurses. Unfortunately, the surplus of nurses is due to the limited absorption capacity of the domestic labour market. Consequently, many nurses have yet to be employed in Indonesia with the population estimated to be 250,000 in 2018. To address such high unemployment rate, the Indonesian government devised a programme to encourage nurses to work overseas since 1996. In its initial year, this programme saw only 11 Indonesian nurses out of 120 candidates (< 10% passing rate) plying their trade in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Only in the last decade, a larger number of Indonesian nurses have successfully migrated overseas. Despite such a large population of unemployed nurses, what is preventing Indonesia from being a major exporter of nurses?

Large Excess of Nurses, Low Export Rate

Since 1996, the number of nurses successfully sent abroad has steadily increased, albeit slowly. This increase coincided with the increasing number of destination countries in the Middle East such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and even into Europe such as England and Netherlands. Soon after, Indonesia initiated similar programmes for its nurses to East Asian countries. Since 2008, Indonesia and Japan have agreed on a bilateral cooperation, the Indonesia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (IJEPA). Part of this cooperation is the provision of Indonesian nurses and caregivers to Japan. Indonesia also routinely sends its nurses to Taiwan, thus becoming the largest exporter of nurses for this state. However, between 2013 and 2018, Indonesia only sent 3,438 nurses to numerous countries, mostly to Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Japan and the UAE.

A reason for the increasing rate of migration stems from a global shortage of nurse. This global shortage has led to Indonesia receiving new requests from countries such as Australia and the United States. According to Indonesia’s Ministry of Health, the demand for both nurses and caregivers raised to 80,000 between the period of 2010 and 2020. Despite such high requests, only 5% has been fulfilled.

Despite its large excess nurses, it does not automatically equate to high export rate of Indonesian nurses. Hampering export includes the lack of desire and motivation of Indonesian nurses to do so and also their difficulties in passing the selection tests. Confounding matters is the COVID-19 pandemic which restricts overseas travel. For example, Taiwan has deferred the arrival of new Indonesian nurses because of the current situation in Indonesia. This is notable as the pandemic has further increased the global need for nurses.

Higher Income and Overseas Experiences not a Priority for Indonesian Nurses

There are several push and pull factors for nurses to work abroad. The push factors for nurses wanting to work abroad generally centres on employment issues in the donor countries. For example, the lack of job opportunities, limited career advancement, low salary and incentives, lack of job safety, and poor workplace conditions. Meanwhile, the pull factors to destination countries would address the aforementioned employment issues.

Unlike other donor countries, Indonesian nurses seem to be unaffected by such push and pull factors. There could be three reasons for this phenomenon: 1) The perception that working abroad did not commensurate with their sacrifices (this will be elaborated in the next paragraph). 2) Turning down overseas stints as they may either be employed in civil service or their families disapproved of such opportunities. Notably, in Indonesia, employment in the civil service is still regarded as an iron rice bowl. Additionally, families continue to play an important role in decision making, particularly for female family members. 3) There is still some apprehension even for nurses who desire to work overseas. Of the approximately 90% of nursing students who wished to work abroad, only about 50% had concrete plans to do so. Shedding light on this apprehension is the finding that those who were younger, lived outside of Java, spoke a foreign language, and had prior overseas experiences were more likely to have concrete plans.

For nurses and nursing students in Indonesia, salary is not the main consideration in selecting a workplace. Instead, they were found to prioritize work experiences and career development. Additionally, many are more comfortable working domestically to be close with their families. Working domestically is perceived to be less risky and challenging than working abroad. This is evident from the low passing rates of Indonesian nurses seeking overseas employment. Many failed to satisfy the requirements, particularly foreign language competencies such as English and proficiency standards such as Prometric Testing, Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing School (CGFNS), National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). Despite the need for foreign nurses, destination countries will not compromise on the quality of nurses they sought.

Attempting to work in Japan and the United States aptly demonstrate the challenges Indonesian nurses faced. To gain employment in Japan, Indonesian nurses are required to sit for competency tests that are conducted in Japanese and in varying writing styles (hiragana, katakana and kanji). However, those who fail such tests can still work in Japan by taking on a lower appointment of nursing assistant. To work in the United States, candidates must pass CGFNS and NCLEX-RN. Test centres for CGFNS are available in Indonesia since 2018 but there are no test centres for NCLEX-RN. The closest NCLEX-RN test centre is in Manila, Philippines, thus, entailing additional costs. This explains why the United States is not yet a major destination country for Indonesian nurses despite repeated requests by the United States government.

Drawing Parallels to the Philippines, the Largest Global Exporter of Nurses

The current surplus of nurses in Indonesia has been experienced by the Philippines in the mid-1970s during President Ferdinand Marcos era. During that era, labour including nurses were sent abroad as a strategy to reduce socio-economic problems and domestic unemployment. This strategy continues to be implemented today. Within the three decades of its inception, more than 193,000 Filipino nurses had worked abroad while only around 30,000 worked domestically. Currently, the number of migrant Filipino nurses is estimated to be higher considering that an average of 13,000 nurses are sent overseas annually, nearly four times the total number of migrant Indonesian nurses in five years from 2013 – 2018.

Such a high migration rate has made the Philippines the largest exporter of nurses in the world. In the United States and UK, the number of Filipino nurses are estimated at 150,000 and 20,000, respectively. Currently, the Philippine government has restricted its nurses from migrating as their services are crucial to the country’s COVID-19 effort. However, Filipino nurses who have secured overseas contracts are exempted from this restriction. Notably, any attempts by the government to reduce the quota for sending its health workers abroad will also face strong resistance.

Unlike Indonesians, Filipinos are not apprehensive about working overseas. Instead, many enrol in nursing schools due to the prospect of working overseas and earning higher salaries. In fact, many Filipino doctors have pursued nursing degrees with similar motivations. In 2017, the author interviewed the senior management of the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) in Manila, Philippines to obtain insights on their level of success in encouraging their nurses to pursue careers abroad. The PNA did not provide any encouragement but instead the nurses themselves desired to work overseas. This was unexpected as there was a high demand for them to work domestically especially in the current pandemic. Moreover, with its higher education system being oriented to export its graduates, the Philippines will face difficulties in stemming the migration of its health workers, especially nurses.

Nurse migration can be beneficial for its donor countries. Not only will it spell foreign funds entering the country, employment in destination countries is likely to be more secure. Additionally, migration to developed countries enables a brain gain for donor countries as nurses can facilitate the transfer of skills, knowledge and even technology to their home countries upon their return. The caveat is that the donor country’s government must have a strategy to facilitate such brain gain. Unfortunately, Indonesia has yet to have such a strategy. Indonesian nurses who returned from Japan experienced a loss of their learned skills and also found it difficult to re-enter the domestic market as there is no system to bridge their expertise from abroad to the domestic market needs.

The main downside of nurse migration to donor countries is the loss of skilled workers i.e. brain drain. Though sending nurses abroad entails financial gains, donor countries may themselves be in need of nurses, especially in developing countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines. This has led to the World Health Organization (WHO) to issue a Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel in 2010. This code of practice discourages the active recruitment of health workers from countries experiencing personnel shortages. Although not enforced, this code of practice sets the ethical discourse for its member countries when developing their health system.

Will Indonesia Become the Second Philippines?

The Indonesian government has chosen to adopt a policy of sending its nurses abroad in response to its perceived surplus of nurses in the country. Therefore, will the scale of Indonesian nurse migration in the near future mirror that of the Philippines?

Based on the perceived surplus of 250,000 Indonesian nurses, there seems to be a potential for Indonesia to equal or even surpass the Philippines in sending its nurses overseas. However, it is unlikely for this to occur due to two reasons:

1) Based on Indonesian legislation, there must be a balance of three factors; domestic needs, overseas opportunities, and the interest of Indonesian nurses to work abroad. This balance is ascertained from analysing the nursing labour markets and their related policies, globally. Additionally, the Human Resources for Health Information System (SISDMK) maintained by Indonesia’s Ministry of Health is expected to provide accurate, reliable, and current information for policymaking vis-à-vis the demand and supply of nurses domestically and abroad.

2) The higher education system in Indonesia is not, or not yet, export-oriented as in the Philippines. Although the curriculum in nursing courses in Indonesia bear semblance to numerous international curricula such as the ASEAN Nursing Common Core Competencies and international accreditation standards such as AUN-QA and ASIIN, interest to working abroad is still limited, as aforementioned. Additionally, Filipino nursing students have an added advantage over their Indonesian counterparts. The Filipino students generally have a higher language competency as their courses are conducted in English.

However, this may change depending on future developments in employment, education and health policies in Indonesia, and extraordinary circumstances such as the current pandemic. Such extraordinary circumstances present an opportunity for donor countries to either export its excess nurses or stockpile its excess nurses in anticipation of a worst-case scenario.

Introduction: Pseudo Progress

Human trafficking is still a dire problem in Indonesia. The number of victims of this crime generally remained high in the past two decades, while the numbers of successfully resolved cases and convictions of perpetrators remained low. Based on the “Trafficking in Persons 2020” report by the United States Department of State, the number of trafficked persons is estimated to be in the thousands in 2020, as with previous years. In contrast to this estimate, the number of victims reported by the Indonesian government was 761 in 2019. This meant an increase in cases than in 2018 (480 cases) and a decrease when compared to 2017 (1,271 cases). Similarly, the number of cases investigated by the National Police in 2019 was 102, an increase from 2018 (95 cases) and a decrease from 2017 (123 cases). The fluctuations in the number of cases in these three years demonstrate the persistence of this crime in Indonesia with little progress in efforts to eradicate it.

In fact, when viewed institutionally, there are enough policies that have been drafted and implemented by the Indonesian government to address human trafficking. Fairly early on, Indonesia has enacted the Law on the Eradication of the Crime of Trafficking in Persons (Law No. 21/2007) and established a Task Force for the Prevention and Management of Human Trafficking in 2008 (Presidential Regulation No. 69/2008). The task force was formed with the inclusion of various institutions ranging from the police, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection; spanning from central to district / city levels. Additionally, there is substantial budget prepared by the government to implement these policies. For the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK), the government provided IDR 54 billion (~USD 385,000) in 2019. Additionally, since 2018, the government made it mandatory for local governments to include anti-trafficking policies at their regional levels. These advancements have culminated Indonesia to be categorized as Tier-2 in the “Trafficking in Persons 2020” report.

Indonesia’s categorization as Tier-2 means that despite its progress in anti-trafficking policies, there are still numerous anti-trafficking agendas that have not been implemented by the Indonesian government. Practically, the implementation of current policies is also still not optimally implemented. In terms of institutional development, for example, the National Police has only developed task forces in 13 provinces. The task force at the regional level has also complained about the lack of funds to coordinate and implement policies at their level.

From this brief description, it is evident that there are contradictions in anti-trafficking policies in Indonesia, namely the gap between the vision and its misaligned strategy. Consequently, various polices and progress tended to be ineffective, while human trafficking is still rife based on the figures of victims and cases as presented by the government, foreign organizations and non-governmental organizations.

These contradictions are also reflected in the confusion by government agencies to interpret and operationalize anti-trafficking policies. In various areas with high trafficking cases such as West Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara and West Java, the police and immigration face difficulties in identifying perpetrators and stopping these acts of crime while they are being carried out. In most cases, the police and local governments only knew about the occurrence of such crime when victims self-reported the crimes, violence and losses they have experienced. Generally, the policy that is implemented in such cases is facilitating the return and rehabilitation of victims albeit on a small scale.

The government and police at the central and regional levels do not seem to have a clear and directed vision and strategy to reduce human trafficking in Indonesia. Confusion in the interpretation and operationalization of anti-trafficking policies must be resolved by understanding the problems that exist in practice that enables the continued occurrence of human trafficking and rendering policies to be ineffective.

Human Trafficking Operations Embedded in Social Structures and Exploits Social Networking Bias

The root problem in developing and implementing anti-trafficking policies in Indonesia stems from the characteristics of this crime itself, namely 1) being embedded in the social structure till it is difficult to identify and address the crime, and 2) the bias of social networks which sees labour migration as vertical mobility despite violating administrative procedures and protective measures, and disregarding the risks that labour migration could be a ploy for human trafficking when such violations are committed.

In Indonesia, human trafficking is operated by embedding itself into social structures. This makes it difficult to ascertain if a crime has been committed as human trafficking has integrated the people’s daily activities. Generally, perpetrators arrested for this crime were part of the social networks of their victims or the victims’ families. In many cases, the perpetrators who were reported to be involved in the recruitment process were even the victims’ family members, relatives or close friends. Many of the recruiters were themselves Indonesian migrants in the destination countries that the victims would be sent to and were socially connected with the victims. Their modus operandi for recruitment could be on the pretext of facilitating requests from their places of employment or their own initiatives whenever there is a job opening. Offering a job opportunity is often seen as a benevolent act and the potential for vertical mobility for family, relatives and members of the village.

The process of transporting and sheltering the victims is also embedded into the daily activities of the community. The transportation that was used in such crimes were generally not specifically set up to solely serve such organized crime networks. Instead, public transportation has been exploited for such heinous purposes. In some cases, victims get a lift in the private vehicles belonging to migrant workers commuting to the same destination countries.

In their villages, the victims’ families and communities generally encourage their children to become migrant works, including via illegal means, regardless of the possibility of becoming victims of human trafficking. Economic pressures and limited work and business opportunities in their hometowns are structural factors that encourage migration that bypasses procedures and protection. Collectively, by being embedded into the social structures and processes, on the one hand facilitates opportunities for human trafficking to occur while confounding efforts to identify and prevent it.

Social networking bias also plays an important role in facilitating human trafficking operations. Victims readily accept work offers due to their social connections with recruiters. By exploiting such trust, victims and victims’ families deem such migrations as opportunities, until they return home as human trafficking victims.

Behind Ineffective Policies: Lack of Basis on Knowledge and Institutionalization

Ineffective government policies are a result of weak basis on knowledge for policy formulation and implementation, as well as weak institutional development to lead and coordinate the prevention and managing human trafficking. The Law on the Eradication of the Crime of Trafficking in Persons is widely used to crack down on illegal migration – apart from cases of illegal local prostitution, however, there is no clear distinction between illegal migration and human trafficking. The report from the US DOS also reveals that data in Indonesia was not uniformed between the National Police, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Law and Human Rights. The confusion generated from this lack of uniformity reduces the reliability of such data. This is confounded by the lack of basis on knowledge about the structures and processes involved in human trafficking operations in Indonesia. This affects the policy agendas to eradicate human trafficking consequently leading to ineffective measures.

The legal framework of anti-trafficking policies alone is insufficient in providing an operational definition of human trafficking, its processes and indicators. An understanding of the structures and processes based on ground realities is needed to design policies that are more precise and effective, both to address and mitigate human trafficking. Clear definitions, vision and strategy based on contextual knowledge are needed in this regard.

More detailed analyses of governance in the implementation of anti-trafficking policies also needs to be conducted and used as a basis for policy development. One such analysis discovered that the Task Forces for the Prevention and Management of Human Trafficking in districts do not work effectively throughout the year. The agencies only meet several times annually and are without any operating budget. Repatriating and rehabilitating victims generally leverage on local government funds which in itself is limited. Therefore, there is often a lack of funds to cater to all the victims. Additionally, investigations and trials have to often end abruptly due to the lack of funds to accommodate victims during investigations and trial processes, thus hampering the resolution of their cases.

Conclusion: The Need for Commitment, Policy Revision and Institutional Reforms

The aforementioned descriptions of Indonesia do not present a bright and optimistic forecast for the eradication of human trafficking in Indonesia. On one end, we see a grim outlook based on the ineffectiveness and seemingly flippant nature of government policies leading to an increase in the number of victims experiencing violence and losses in wealth and opportunities. Numerous victims even refused to return to their respective hometowns and chose to stay in transit regions due to the trauma they experienced.

The threes factors that must be emphasized to initiate improvements are 1) strengthening government and institutions’ commitment both nationally and locally, 2) revising policies, and 3) reforming institutions involved in the prevention and management of human trafficking. The government must also strengthen its vision and commitment to eradicate human trafficking to ensure its translation into a more effective strategy and policies. Beyond this, the institutions responsible for implementing these need to be improve their stewardships and inter-institution coordination.

Introduction

Indonesia is experiencing both a shortage and surplus of nurses. A surplus of Indonesian nurses is created when the number of nurses far exceeds the need and demand. Consequently, there is a high rate of unemployment and low bargaining power for nursing graduates. Currently, the average salary of nurses is only slightly above the national minimum wage.

According to the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) 2018 report, Indonesia had 695,248 qualified nurses in the sector. However, only 446,428 are employed while the remaining 248,820 are unemployed or looking for employment. Even if the demand for domestic nurses were met, there would still be an excess of 219,257 graduate nurses that year. The demand for domestic nurses was calculated based on the ratio set by the government.

Despite the surplus in qualified nurses, Indonesia is experiencing a shortage of employed nurses. Recent data revealed that the number of employed nurses compared to Indonesia’s total population is still below the ideal. This is further confounded by the uneven distribution of nurses in several regions. This raises several questions: 1) How can there be a simultaneous surplus and shortage of nurses? 2) Why is the demand for nurses not automatically met with the surplus of nurses? 3) How is this issue being currently addressed?

The Surplus—Shortage Paradox

There are at least two reasons behind the surplus of qualified nurses. First, the continued perception that Indonesia is experiencing a critical shortage of nurses. Second, the high rate of development of nurses in Indonesia.

In 2006, WHO included Indonesia in their list of 57 countries experiencing a human resources for health (HRH) crisis. A country was deemed to be experiencing a critical shortage if it possessed less than 80% of the nursing population needed to serve the country’s needs (needs-based sufficiency). Till today, this data is often referred to when formulating health HR policies.

WHO determined that the ideal ratio of employed nurses is 1.58 nurses per 1,000 population. This is different from the Indonesian government’s standard which is 1.80 nurses per 1,000 residents. Despite the differences, both targets have yet to be met till today. The latest data from the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) HRH Information System shows that the number of employed nurses in Indonesia is 356,960 or around 1.30 per 1,000 population. Therefore, to achieve the respective ideal ratios, an additional 75,000 to 135,000 nurses have to be absorbed into the labour market. When compared with the 2018 MOM report, it must be noted that there is no decrease in the number of employed nurses. The difference in figures is primarily due to the different parameters employed by each to define nurses. MOM’s definition included nurses who were not affiliated with any healthcare facilities and were working independently (for e.g. independent home care nurses, etc) whereas MOH’s data was tabulated by nurses who were registered in their HRH information system.

Unfortunately, this demand cannot be immediately be met despite the high number of nursing job seekers. The main issue stems from the suboptimal capability of the domestic market to absorb available nurses. According to the MOM, Indonesia needs an additional 584 hospitals to achieve the recruitment of nurses as set by the government’s 2024 target. The number of new hospitals would have to be revised to 1,958 to absorb all available nurses. However, achieving the 2024 target is already hampered by the government’s and private sector’s limited budget. Though the COVID-19 pandemic has forced large-scale recruitment of nurses, it would still not satisfy the ideal ratio set out by the government nor is sufficient to absorb the entire surplus of nurses.

It is common practice to use nurse-per-population ratio to formulate health HR policies, especially in low- and middle-income countries. This needs-based approach can indeed reveal the number of health workers needed for a population. However, this approach cannot provide a comprehensive picture of the dynamic nature of labour markets.

In the past, there was a tendency for any shortage to be perceived as a result of insufficient supply.  It was the result of overreliance towards nurse-per-population which had been widely used in many countries as well as by the WHO. Consequently, in response to the lack of supply, the government increased the production capacity and to train more health workers. In 2008, Indonesia was able to produce 34,000 nurses annually. A decade later, in 2019, the production capacity increased to 138,206 nurses per year (roughly a four-fold increase). However, the increased capacity was unexpectedly unaligned with the absorption capacity of the labour market, resulting in an oversupply, high number of unemployment and loss of competent nurses.

Inadequate Policy Implementation Perpetuates Overproduction

As the policy to train nurses is closely linked to the tertiary education policy, the government implemented several policies to reduce the overproduction. This included closing non-accredited nursing programmes, reducing the quota for new student admissions, and imposing a moratorium on the establishment of new nursing programmes.

In 2019, the government revoked the permits of 130 private universities because of not meeting accreditation standard, ostensibly in an attempt to reducing the number of nursing programmes. Additionally, the moratorium on new nursing programmes has continued since 2011. This moratorium, however, can be waived for regions experiencing a shortage of nurses. Moreover, the establishment of undergraduate and professional nursing programmes is still permitted so long as the applying college has a vocational nursing programme (D3) that is minimally B-accredited.

Unlike these two policies, there has not been any concrete implementation to reduce the quota for new nursing students. Conversely, there has been a tendency to increase this quota annually as the colleges themselves continue to determine it independently. In fact, the Nursing Act regulates the national quota for new admissions of nursing students, as has been implemented for medical and dentistry programmes. However, to this day, the derivative rules regarding this quota have not been promulgated.

Nurse Migration as a Means to Address Surplus

Despite these policies, the production capacity of nurses cannot be drastically reduced immediately. Similarly, the absorption capacity of the labour market cannot be increased in a short period of time. Therefore, to manage the increasing number of nurses graduating annually while the job market remains limited, the Indonesian government has adopted a policy to encourage nurses to migrate. This policy was feasible as there was a global shortage of nurses. In 2014, it was estimated that there was a shortage of 9 million nurses globally.

Between 2013 and 2018, 3.838 Indonesian nurses found employment overseas. The top five destinations were Taiwan (1,446), Saudi Arabia (932), Kuwait (495), Japan (307) and the United Arab Emirates (112). Despite this, migration is still insignificant to impact the existing surplus of nurses. There are several challenges preventing this from being a viable solution. One challenge is that Indonesia is still a “new player” when compared to neighbouring Philippines which has been a top exporter of nurses globally for more than seven decades.

Need for Accurate Data to Drive Policy Changes

The Indonesian government has relied on nurse migration to address the surplus issue. However, there is a need to improve the health HR data management through an integrated information system.

Currently, conflicting data between institutions is a chronic issue in Indonesia. For example, there is a difference of around 50,000 nursing graduates between the data issued by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Higher Education Database (PD DIKTI) in 2019. Additionally, the data on employed nurses in 2018 from the MOH and the MOM also differed significantly (around 36,000 difference). In fact, the author found inconsistencies in the number of nurses from documents released by the MOH.

Such inconsistencies have led the Minister of Health himself to be reluctant in using his ministry’s data to facilitate the COVID-19 vaccination programme. Currently, there is a Health Human Resources Information System which includes data of nurses entering and leaving the labour market, as well as active nurses at the national, provincial, and district / city levels. However, this system requires vast improvements such as integrating data on nursing graduates with PD DIKTI and data on vacancies available in the job market. By ensuring the accuracy of such data, more effective policies on the development and employment of nurses can be formulated.

Introduction

The Job Creation law (or generally knowns as UU Cipta Kerja) and all its components have been legitimized since October 2020. However, the enforcement of this law has not been successful thus far. Some have attributed this to the need for other implementing laws, such as Government Regulations and Presidential Decrees, to be part of the implementation process. The inclusion of such laws also enables the public to continue to track and ensure that the laws are enforced in compliance with the public interest.

Moreover, it remains unclear whether the law can potentially improve the Indonesian economic position, both regionally and internationally. One indication of how this could be achieved is outlined in a section in the Republic of Indonesia Law Number 11 of 2020 on job creation. The section entails how the Job Creation Law should absorb as much of the Indonesian workforce as possible in the midst of highly competitive global economic demands This, thus, demonstrates how the law is vital in preparing the national economy to compete regionally and globally.

Economic, Technological and Human Resource Considerations for the Job Creation Law

There are several considerations for the Indonesian government pertaining to the Job Creation law. Indonesia should first focus on enhancing its productivity as the largest economy among ASEAN countries. More specifically, Indonesia should avoid becoming a consumer state as it eases access of imported goods into the country.  By doing so, Indonesia can avoid becoming a victim of the global economy as it facilitates both domestic and foreign investments through the law. It is also noteworthy that the law is implemented in the digital economy of industrial revolution 4.0 which encourages a larger reliance on technology through online sales and transactions.

This law is also expected to facilitate technology-based transfer into Indonesia and improve the informational skills of its citizens. To sustain long-term impact, the quality of Indonesian human resources should be significantly improved and the utilization of its natural resources optimized. Such optimization is crucial to support Indonesia’s exporting process. Additionally, this should entail a significant reduction of raw material exports that can be achieved by transforming the paradigm behind Indonesian exports. Through economic policies, Indonesia could instead focus on increasing their exported products which have been processed both partially and fully in Indonesia. By doing so, it will not only further increase the job creation in Indonesia, but also inspire new local innovations that can compete with global competitors.

Improving Human Resources through Education

To facilitate a successful transfer of information, skills, and technology, improving the quality of Indonesian human resources is mandatory. The lack of such improvements will limit the goals of the law and endanger its existence. Generally, Indonesia’s human resources are impeded by several factors, including (1) low qualifications of manpower which predominantly possess high school qualifications or lower; (2) low productivity rates; and (3) a lowly skilled labour. Addressing these human resource challenges enable a proper matching with the expectation of the Job Creation Law.

As a developing country, Indonesian human resources require substantial improvements. This is evident as Indonesia is ranked 111^th out of 189 countries or sixth among ASEAN countries in the Human Development Index Ranking. This is unfortunate when human development is key to increasing economic growth and vice versa. The “two-way relationships between Economic Growth (EG) and Human Development (HD)” also demonstrates that human development is not only a product of economic growth but also an important indicator and input for economic growth. Therefore, human development should be prioritized further to drive higher economic growth.

This, thus, supports the need to synergize the law with other regulations including the Law on the National Educational System. Currently, educational regulations have been incorporated into the Job Creation Law to facilitate the improvement of Indonesian human resources. While the law aims to ease investments and creating jobs, the incorporated educational reforms would improve the quality of Indonesian human resources intended to fill these newly created jobs. This symbiotic relationship exemplifies the importance of a strong economic system sustained by an equally good education system; within the ambit of national development.

The current Law on the National Educational System has yet to successfully developed a comprehensive education system throughout Indonesia. This is due to numerous compartmentalized developments of other educational regulations covering: 1) Law No. 14/2005 on teachers and lecturers; 2) Law No. 12/2012 on higher education; and 3) Law No. 18/2019 on Islamic boarding schools (pesantren).

These developments have caused the Law on the National Education System to seem fragmented and reduced to several specific regulations, thus impeding the formation of an integrated education system. Akin to the Job Creation Bill, by merging these separate education laws, it is hoped that there would no longer be any regulations pertaining to education beyond the Law on the National Education System.

Towards a Good Education System in Indonesia

A good education system is one that develops Indonesians to possess values such as diligence, independence, resilient, entrepreneurial while possessing a prestigious mindset. Simultaneously, an education system that also instils citizenship values is essential to develop a preference for locally-made products over foreign products. Such education system would not only improve Indonesia’s human resources but also innovate Indonesians to better compete in this global economy.

Numerous of these values are being nurtured into students under the current education system. However, some of these values have not yet been implemented due to a lack of grounded educational philosophy. This is further confounded by the current education system which cannot fully accommodate various developments such as industrial revolution 4.0 and society 5.0. Instead, it seems solely focused on formal education.

To address these issues, it is proposed for the Indonesian national education system to return to the philosophy espoused by Ki Hajar Dewantara, Indonesia’s founding father of education. Through such a philosophy, the system is capable of strengthening and synergizing the three hubs of education; formal, non-formal and informal. This would also entail the standardization of national education across Indonesia covering aspects such as competencies, curriculum, processes, and educators. Moreover, with the advent of industrial revolution 4.0, society 5.0 and the COVID-19 pandemic, the digitalization of education must also be considered.

Such massive effort of standardization is still a distant goal as it is fraught with numerous challenges:

1. Indonesia does not have a grounded national education philosophy;
2. The lack of an educational roadmap or blueprint for the next 50 or 100 years to serve as a main reference for administering the National Education System;
3. The presence of inconsistent education policies such as the zoning policy;
4. The contested autonomy of education between the central and local governments;
5. The lack of proportional and efficient allocation of Indonesia’s education budget;
6. The compulsory education programme of nine years is not completely administered as evident from the number of school dropouts;
7. The low national mean years of schooling (Rata-rata Lama Sekolah, RLS) that has yet to complete high school and the low estimated participation rate (Angka Partisipasi Kasar, APK) of those moving on to tertiary education upon completing pre-tertiary education;
8. The lack of standardization of educators as aforementioned;
9. The disparity of education between regions due to factors such as restricted access; and
10. There is yet to be a link and match between education and industry.

Key to overcoming these challenges is the formulation of an educational roadmap or blueprint as aforementioned. A long-term educational roadmap lays the foundation for the development of comprehensive, complementary policies that are relevant to the needs of time.

To further inspire educational reforms, the government should escape from the paradigmatic trap of focusing solely on Indonesia’s economic growth rate. Instead, the government needs to recalibrate qualitatively and comprehensively in initiating a balanced development of other sectors. Economic growth without such a balanced development perpetuates social imbalance.