Bandung, 27 July 2022 –
Following the second G20 Education Working Group (G20 EdWG) meeting last May, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (MoECRT) of the Republic of Indonesia held the third G20 Education Working Group (EdWG) in a hybrid format in the city of Bandung, West Java, on 27 to 28 July 2022.
Chair of G20 EdWG, Iwan Syahril said in a statement that the MoECRT continues to strengthen its commitment to invite the world to recover together and recover stronger from the pandemic. "During the third meeting, the MoECRT, together with delegates of the G20 member countries, special invitees, international organizations, as well as working groups, and engagement groups is planned to have further discussion on the Education Working Group's four priority agendas ahead of the ministerial summit in September," said Iwan Syahril.
In his statement, Iwan also explained the reason behind the selection of Bandung as the host city of the third EdWG meeting. It is driven by the relevancy of silih asih, silih asah, silih asuh, silih wawangi philosophy held dear by Sundanese-native to the western region of Java island-to the theme taken for G20 Indonesia presidency, 'Recover Together, Recover Stronger'.
Silih or "mutual" represents the idea of a transformative change that happens in a reciprocal manner. "At the G20 meetings on education that we lead, the delegates actively exchanged responses. By having an active forum, the delegates maintain the shared value of gotong royong in creating global recovery, especially education," said Iwan.
Meanwhile, silih asih means taking care of each other; silih asah is to educate each other; silih asuh means nurturing each other; and while, silih wawangi means supporting each other towards the betterment.
"In my opinion, to strengthen the commitment to recover together by collaborating to achieve common good, or in Indonesian language gotong royong, the Sundanese philosophy of silih asih, silih asah, silih asuh, silih wawangi is highly relevant and serves as reinforcement value to the overall effort," concluded Iwan, the Director General of Teachers and Education Personnel, and the Acting Director General of Early Childhood Education, Primary Education , and Secondary Education of the MoECRT.
During the third EdWG meeting, the MoECRT leads the discussion on two EdWG priority agendas, namely Solidarity and Partnership and The Future of Work Post-COVID-19 besides further discussions on the G20 EdWG Report and compendium, as well as Education Ministers' Declaration as the forum's expected deliverables.
