On
behalf of the Brawijaya University representation delegation of “The 1st
International Seminar on Quality and Affordable Education 2012” please allow me
to give thank you, Ir. Ari
Wahjudi, MT as 3rd Deputy Dean, Student Affairs Section of Engineering Faculty, Ir. Dwi Priyantoro, M.S. as Chairman
Major of Water Resources Engineering, Dr. Eng Donny Harisuseno, ST. MT as Secretary
Major of Water Resources Engineering, and all the people who support me to
participate as a presenter in this conference.
This seminar is truly international seminar, since it
hosted by three universities, namely: The State University of Jakarta,
Universiti Malaya, Malaysia, and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The guest
speakers also come from several countries such as: Indonesia, Malaysia, and
other countries, and attended by participants from various countries, such as:
Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the United Arab Emirate, India, the United
States of America, Iran, and the Philippines.
To improve social walfare and alleviate proverty, the
government of Indonesia has established a policy in the field of educational
system to fulfill the increasing demands of science and technology and labor
market. The objective of the policy is to increase participation rate 100% for
elementary education and 96% for secondary education. Even the target has been
achieved 94,6% in 2009, it is far from the whole objective.
Based on the data of Education Development Index (EDI),
several countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam,
Myanmar, and Cambodia are in the category of middle level in the EDI countries,
while the other countries such as Brunei Darussalam is the higher level. In
other words, quality education is still a problem in those countries.
The effort to expand the access to affordable education in
terms of geogrphical and economic development, improving the quality and
relevance of education, strengthening governance and accountability of
educational services must be realized to accelerate the achievement of
universal primary education by 2015. Such an effort should be implemented to
include: (i) education and competence of teachers; (ii) teachers
professionaism; (iii) financial education management and human resource
management; (iv) politics of education; (v) the paradigm and politics of education;
(vi) development of organizational education; (vii) quality assurance of
education; (viii) education and gender equality; and (ix) education for all.
Regarding those above issues, the international
conference is aimed to produce strategic formulas to solve such a problem,
particulary to find a solution how to develop a qualified and affordable
education system. In line with that aim, the theme of this seminar is “Developing
a Qualified and Affordable Education for All”.
