T

he government is being urged to accelerate its IT-based education system migration to improve the competitiveness of future generations.

Founder of youth group Gerak Cepat (Quick Movement) Chaerany Putri said that the government had been slow in implementing a digital-based education system, leaving it far behind other neighboring countries, including Malaysia and Singapore.

'€œThe government should be more aggressive in improving digital-based learning by, for example, incorporating it in the national curriculum and providing better infrastructure,'€ Chaerany said, adding that the country'€™s education system should no longer focus on textbooks and shift faster to online learning using digital equipment.

Unfortunately, she said the government was still dealing with the revision of the national curriculum that has left teachers, students and parents confused.

'€œIt'€™s actually not difficult to implement an IT-based education system because most youths are digital natives,'€ she said.

She cited data showing that 88.1 millions Indonesians were internet users, but most of them used it for social media and messaging, with very few using it for learning purposes.

Microsoft Indonesia corporate affairs director Ruben Hattari said that the government'€™s e-learning policies were well implemented, proven by high internet penetration in schools and the implementation of computer-based text (CBT).

The Culture and Education Ministry tested a computer-based national exam in 862 out of 79,399 schools nationwide last year to prevent cheating.

It also produced e-books available for download on tablet computers to be distributed to all 208,000 schools in the country, mostly to the country'€™s disadvantaged regions, as an attempt to make learning more interactive and accessible for students and teachers nationwide.

However, Ruben said that more needed to be done as internet was not available in remote areas, not to mention teachers'€™ lack of digital literacy.

Ruben further said that the government should also improve teachers'€™ skills.

'€œThey should know how to operate the equipment and direct their students and children to use the internet for positive aims,'€ Ruben said, adding that nowadays many children and teenagers tended to misuse the internet.

Ari Santoso, an official from the ministry'€™s Information and Communications Technology Center (Pustekkom) said that the government had achieved many breakthroughs to improve the digital-based education system, through applications and policies.

However, he acknowledged that the government needed to provide better infrastructure and facilities. The ministry'€™s data shows that 77 percent of schools across the country are connected to the internet, meaning that 48,543 schools are still without internet.

'€œWe need a large budget to connect all schools to the internet. The public should not rely on the central government because it is also the responsibility of regional administrations,'€ Ari said.