Bandung, 20 May 2022 –
Concluding the second G20 Education Working Group (EdWG) meeting, Chair of G20 EdWG 2022, Iwan Syahril said that under Indonesia's leadership through the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (MoECRT), the EdWG G20 delegation had reached a consensus regarding the importance of accelerating education transformation to achieve learning recovery in the spirit of gotong royong, or supporting each other to reach a common goal.
In addition to emphasizing the importance of gotong royong to recover together, the Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, Nadiem Makarim, also emphasized that Indonesia sees the future and we want to race towards it, instead of just playing catch up. "Gotong royong and this vision are two solid foundations in the leadership of the MoECRT in the EdWG G20," added Iwan Syahril, Friday (20/5).
In line with the Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology's statement further highlighted by Iwan Syahril, Merdeka Belajar (Emancipated Learning) breakthroughs were raised at the discussion as best practices that highlight gotong royong in the transformation of education in Indonesia that also serve as the foundation of the G20 education priority agendas.
Besides further discussions on the two priority agendas of the EdWG G20, Universal Quality Education and Digital Technologies in Education, the second meeting of the EdWG G20 which took place virtually for two days in 18 to 19 May 2022 from Bandung, West Java, also touched upon other issues that include the initiative to renew the world's commitment in 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.
The meeting received support and appreciation from a number of delegates of G20 countries. Vera Kammann, Germany's Head of Delegation said, "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."
The MoECRT will bring the EdWG G20 report that covers the principle of gotong royong to the United Nations' forum
Regarding the initiative to bring the results of the EdWG G20 to the Transforming Education Summit (TES), Iwan said, "This means that the voice of the Indonesian leadership, in this case the MoECRT at the G20, will obtain the attention of the world and even more countries."
Furthermore, Iwan said, "The EdWG G20 report draft that we will bring to the global level has received positive appreciation, and the education recovery framework based on the principle of gotong royong will have its own part."
Head of delegates from Spain, Andreas Contreras, conveyed his support for Indonesia's leadership in the second EdWG G20 meeting. Head of delegates from France, Francois Parain also conveyed the same message to Indonesia's presidency.
Francois Parain supported and encouraged the initiatives 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 Parain.
Concluding the meeting, Iwan also expressed his appreciation to the delegates of G20 member states, special invitees, international organizations including UNESCO, UNICEF, OECD, and the World Bank, the B20 (Business20) and Y20 (Youth20), as well as the MoECRT team for their participation and support.
Following the second meeting of EdWG G20, the third meeting will be held on 22nd to 23rd June, 2022, besides the fourth meeting and Ministerial Meeting that will be held on 25th to 27th July, 2022.
