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Bringing the spirit of gotong royong to the world stage
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he chair of the G20 Education Working Group 2022, Iwan Syahril, announced that the delegation had reached a consensus regarding the importance of accelerating education transformation to achieve learning recovery in the spirit of gotong royong, which is roughly translated to collaboration.
The agreement was reached based on the second G20 EdWG, which was attended by Indonesia’s Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry (Kemendikbudristek). The two-day meeting took place virtually starting on May 18 in Bandung, West Java.
Indonesia’s Education Minister Nadiem Makarim emphasized the importance of gotong royong and mutual support, so that Indonesia can race towards the future that everyone envisions, instead of just playing catch up.
Iwan also highlighted the merdeka belajar (emancipated learning) breakthroughs as evidence of the best practices that showcase the spirit of gotong royong in the transformation of education in Indonesia and also serve as the foundation of the G20 education priority agendas.
“I would like to first of all thank Indonesia for all the work that has been done so far. It’s an impressive and ambitious agenda, and we’re looking forward to supporting Indonesia’s goals in the G20 presidency,” said Vera Kammann, Germany’s head of delegation.
Moreover, the EdWG G20 also discussed agendas surrounding universal quality education and digital technologies in education, along with the initiative to renew the world's commitment to transforming education at the Transforming Education Summit (TES) convened by the United Nations, as well as collecting inputs from delegates for the EdWG G20 report and the G20 education ministers’ declaration drafts.
"This means that the voice of the Indonesian leadership, in this case the [Kemendikbudristek] at the G20, will obtain the attention of the world," said Iwan about the initiative. He added, “The EdWG G20 report draft that we are bringing to the global level has received positive feedback, and the education recovery framework based on the principle of gotong royong will have its own segment.”
The heads of delegates from other countries confirmed his statement as they showed their appreciation for Indonesia’s presidency. Francois Parain, the head of delegates from France, also encouraged the initiative to bring the voice of the G20 EdWG 2022 to a higher-level meeting (TES).
"We think it’s very important to record that the education system plays such a fundamental role in economic vitality and social correlation. So, we could have something advocating that in the face of future global challenges," said Francois.
In reply, Iwan also expressed his appreciation and support to the delegates of G20 member states; special invitees; international organizations including UNESCO, UNICEF, OECD, the World Bank, the B20 (Business20) and Y20 (Youth20); and his team at Kemendikbudristek for their participation.
The third meeting is scheduled to start on June 22, followed by the fourth ministerial meeting, which will take place from July 25-27.
