DIAN HERDIANA | Photo : Shutterstock | Source : antaranews.com
A total of 2,175 people received the Indonesian Education Scholarship (Beasiswa Pendidikan Indonesia, BPI) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) in the odd semester of the 2021/2022 academic year.
The Ministry of Education and Culture gives BPI through the Education Financing Service Center (Puslapdik). Scholarship programs are provided for undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels and double degree programs. The recipients consist of prospective teachers, teachers, prospective lecturers, lecturers, cultural actors, students, and outstanding students. They will attend education at 59 universities globally and 112 universities abroad spread over 20 countries.
The scholarship recipients participated in the virtual debriefing of the Indonesian Education Scholarship Program to improve their competence. Mendikbudristek Nadiem Anwar was present at the opening of the event, Friday, October 1, 2021.
Nadiem advised the scholarship recipients to take this opportunity to take an adventure in studying. “Build a new network, get out of your comfort zone, try new things, don’t be afraid to take risks, and be innovative in learning,” he said.
Nadiem hopes that BPI can motivate its recipients to become leaders in their respective sectors and support the Free Learning movement, which the Ministry of Education and Culture initiated. “Slowly the Free Learning movement is progressing and gaining momentum. So without a change leader, there will be no Independent Learning. Freedom to Learn is a movement. All who receive this scholarship will become agents of change. So optimize and contribute to the community when you return later,” he said.
To the teacher educators who received the BPI, Nadiem emphasized that they would become leaders in their respective sectors, either formally through Teacher Activators, becoming school principals, becoming teacher supervisors, or becoming part of the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Nadiem took the time to discuss with several scholarship recipients, Sry Mulia Kurniati, a vocational teacher who received a Domestic Teacher Scholarship. Nadiem asked about his plans to return to teaching after studying with BPI.
Sry Mulia, who teaches at a state vocational school in Palembang majoring in tourism, answered that she saw that there was no synchronization between the existing curriculum and the needs of students in the industrial world. “My goal is to form a teaching material or learning syllabus that is in sync with the students’ majors,” he said.
Nadiem hopes that Sry Mulia will be able to redesign the curriculum for the vocational tourism major when he returns to teaching. “Hopefully at that time there will be independence from all our Merdeka Learning programs to be able to move. The key to this graduation is to be a mover, so one example is the Motivator Teacher. I hope that Motivating Teachers can enter leadership positions in the education sector,” he said.
Primus Bere Boe, the recipient of the Domestic Cultural Actors scholarship who is pursuing his master’s degree at the Yogyakarta Art Institute (ISI), is happy to have the opportunity to study for a master’s degree. “My home area is in the border area between Indonesia and Timor Leste where cultural enhancement is very much needed, so that it can create a sense of nationalism,” said Primus.
Meanwhile, a lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Indonesia, Vita Silvana, who received an Overseas Lecturer Scholarship for the doctoral level, said that research and international collaboration are fundamental in the Tridarma of Higher Education to maintain the quality of higher education.
Responding to this, Nadiem said that currently, the government had prepared a budget so that Indonesian lecturers can continue their education abroad and increase international collaboration opportunities are also increasingly open.
In a briefing report, the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Suharti, said that in the odd semester of the 2021/2022 academic year, the Ministry of Education and Culture provided scholarships to 2,175 recipients. “They consist of 1,948 scholarship recipients in the country, 217 recipients abroad, and 10 double degree recipients,” he said.
The details are as follows: S-1/D-4 degree scholarships were awarded to 373 recipients of prospective teachers and teachers of productive subjects at SMK, cultural actors, and outstanding students or students. Master’s degree scholarships are awarded to 335 recipients, with 269 countries, 63 abroad, and three double degrees. This master’s degree scholarship recipients come from prospective academic and vocational college lecturers, prospective teachers and education staff, cultural actors, and outstanding students. Then the doctoral degree scholarships were awarded to 1,467 recipients from academic and vocational college lecturers, teachers and education staff, and cultural actors.