A

major organizational overhaul is in order following President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's decision to divide the education ministry into two, with one handling basic education and the other overseeing higher education and research, experts have said.

Jokowi has decided to establish two ministries ' the Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education Ministry and the Research and Technology and Higher Education Ministry ' to realize his vision on the research and education sectors.

Jokowi has appointed the rector of Jakarta-based Paramadina University, Anies Baswedan, to lead the former and Semarang-based Diponegoro University economics professor M. Nasir to be in charge of the latter.

Indonesian Rectors' Forum (FRI) chairman Ravik Karsidi said the first challenge for Nasir would be to come up with a lean organizational structure for his ministry.

'The Directorate General of Higher Education is one of the largest units at the [now-defunct] education and culture ministry, which oversees more than 100 state universities and more than 3,000 private universities, while the [now-defunct] research and technology ministry has several deputies who are without big workloads.

'So, the new research and technology and higher education minister must ensure that his high-ranking officials would be willing to lose their positions,' said Ravik, who is also the rector of state Sebelas Maret University (UNS) in Surakarta, Central Java.

Federation for Indonesian Teachers Associations (FSGI) secretary-general Retno Listyarti expressed similar concerns, especially for the Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education Ministry.

Retno said that given Anies' lack of experience in basic education issues, he should assemble a strong team that could support him.

'Although he successfully founded Indonesia Mengajar, Anies was a university rector who has limited experience in managing basic and secondary education,' she said, referring to the Teach for Indonesia program that sends top Indonesian graduates to teach in impoverished and remote elementary schools for a year.

'So, he needs to make sure that he has aides who can provide him with relevant data and rich field experience,' she added.

Despite the soaring education budget in recent years, recent data showed that the massive investment has had little impact on improving the overall quality of education.

In December last year, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), for instance, revealed that Indonesia finished second-lowest out of the 65 countries and regions that participated in its 2012 assessment.

In his presidential campaign, Jokowi promised fundamental changes in the education sector through, among other things, highlighting the aspect of civic education in the national curriculum and abolishing compulsory national exams.

Earlier this week, Anies said he would run an evaluation on the 2013 curriculum to ensure that it could help students cope with current challenges.

Anies also said that the ministry 'would pay more attention to teachers'.

'Teachers will be the key to our success in education. No matter how great our curriculum and facilities are, it will be hard [to succeed] if we have unqualified teachers,' he added.