Department of Education Targets To Solve Problem of Educated Unemployment

JAKARTA (SINDO) –The government will trim down several majors at universities to resolve the problem of educated unemployment.

The strategic policy will be implemented by the Department of Education, among others by limiting the proposal to open new majors at all universities. According to General Secretary of the Department of Education Dodi Nandika, the restriction is done to increase quality and relevance of education in Indonesia.

According to Dodi, each new major that is proposed by the university will be analyzed according to market demand so that its graduates will not be unemployed. “So far, our quality is low and its relevance questioned. The average waiting time for graduates to get a job is quite long, one year. This must be shortened,” he said in Jakarta yesterday.

Dodi mentioned that one of the faculties that will soon be trimmed is agriculture and MIPA or mathematics and natural sciences. Until now, he follows, the majors in these two faculties are too many.

He gives an example in agriculture there are the majors counseling, cultivation, agricultural evolution, diseases, agronomy, socio economic agriculture, and nutrition. While in the MIPA faculty, there are biology, chemistry, physics, math, organic chemistry and statistic. “Such narrow majoring should exist in S2 and S3 level.” Dodi says. 

Because of the many majoring, the scientific knowledge of these graduates is too narrow. Job openings for the corresponding majors are also too few. “At the end many work outside of their expertise and many more are jobless,” he said. 

In the near future, officials of public and private universities will be summoned by the Department of Education in a socialization program called Study Program Revitalization. The details of the program and the assisting budget for universities have been prepared. “Universities that are willing to rearrange their majors, are obligated to send their proposals and will be given a budget as much as Rp 20 billion for each packet,” he says.

General Director of Higher Education of the Department of Education Fasli Jalal said previously that at the moment in Indonesia there are around 730,000 unemployed graduates. As many as 410,000 of them have S1 qualification. "Most of these educated unemployed are from the social science,” he continues.

He further explains that there are 4.3 million university students in Indonesia. One million of them are at state universities, while 2.3 million study at private universities, 500 thousand choose the major religion pedagogy and 50,000 are in official education.
From this number, said Fasli, around 25% are found in the social department, 20% in technical, and 10% each in MIPA, health, technical, pedagogy, computer and agriculture. Private universities open many social majors, but too few MIPA majors.