Observing themes of 2019 Vice Presidential Debate
Education, health, human resources and socio-cultural affairs are to be the themes of the vice presidential debate on Sunday (17/3/2019). It will be interesting to hear the two candidates’ medium- and long-term strategies on these issues, considering that development in these sectors would never bear instant results.
Development in these four sectors spearheads national progress. To accelerate progress, we need to position human and cultural developments as the major pillars of national development.
Education, health, human resources and socio-cultural developments must be measurable. It is important to produce highly educated Indonesians. However, it is also important to ensure that education can improve people’s productivity and welfare – as well as produce superior generations with characters based on Pancasila values.
Achievements in education, health and human resources
Progress in education and health development can be monitored by using Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data. We know that today Indonesians live longer, go to school longer and have stronger purchasing power.
Indonesia’s Human Development Index (HDI) has given the country a “high human development” status since 2016. The country’s HDI has jumped from 68.9 in 2014 to 70.81 in 2017. In less than five years, 26 out of 34 provinces in Indonesia either have achieved or will achieve the status. Papua, the only province still with the status of low human development, would also achieve progress. Observing current trends, Papua is to have a medium human development status in two years.
Time spent in school of people between 7 and 24 years old is now 12.85 years. Indonesian youths today enjoy a higher expectancy for going to college. This is better than the 8.1 years (equal to reaching 8th grade) that Indonesian adults were expected to remain in school.
Despite significant improvements in education across all provinces, interprovincial education gaps remain a challenge. Physical infrastructure development in disadvantaged regions is expected to boost access to better health and education.
Furthermore, gaps persist in education quality. In education development plans, quality must be the focus alongside quantity. We need to improve teachers’ teaching capacity by improving their knowledge, skills and welfare. We need to ensure the quality of education by improving teachers’ capacity and certification tests.
Success in health development would be determined by at least three things, namely people’s lifestyles, ownership of national health insurance and access to healthcare facilities and medicines. Life expectancy, which reflects people’s health, has been improving.
Just compare the statistics: Indonesians’ life expectancy was 52 years in 1980 and 71 years in 2017. The infant mortality rate has dropped from 32 per 1,000 live births in 2012 to 24 in 2014. The child mortality rate has also dropped from 40 per 1,000 live births in 2012 to 32 in 2014. Even amid recent campaigns to reject various types of vaccination, child vaccination coverage increased from 86.5 percent in 2015 to 91.1 percent in 2017.
Maternal health influences maternal mortality rates. Nobody wishes a mother to lose her life while bringing another into the world. Hospital birth rates have increase from 63.2 percent in 2012 to 83.67 percent in 2017 and higher. Currently, 90.9 percent of birth attendants are healthcare professionals. People have begun to leave behind the high-risk traditional habits of the past. Maternal health care is aimed at ensuring that mothers can produce high-quality and healthy future generations and that maternal and infant mortality rates go down.
Successful health development is supported by robust participation in the national health insurance system. Amid an increasing deficit, the Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) had 196 million participants as of 2018. Quality improvements in healthcare facilities are also reflected in the percentage of medicines and food that meet quality standards.
Challenges in health development are linked to life patterns that lead to higher prevalence of non-infectious diseases, such as heart ailments, cancer, hypertension and diabetes. Despite people’s improving access to healthcare facilities, preventive measures remain better than curative ones.
Concerning human resources, the BPS’ National Labor Force Survey in August 2018 showed that Indonesia has more than 131 million people in its workforce. The challenge is that 5.34 percent of the population (7 million people) is in open unemployment. A majority of the nation’s workforce (almost 30 percent) relies on agriculture. Also, 14.7 percent of workers are in manufacturing.
In developing our human resources, poor education and high unemployment rates among high school graduates remain huge problems. About 57 percent of our workforce have, at most, middle school certificates and are above 35 years old.
Use the demographic bonus
Until 2038, Indonesia is to benefit from a demographic bonus. This is not simply 10 or 20 years. In 2019, Indonesia is to have 183.36 million people in the productive age.
The latest population projections show that the window of opportunity, the peak of the country’s demographic bonus, would occur from 2020 to 2024. This is the same period as the 2020-2024 National Mid-Term Development Plan (RPJMN). The winner of this year’s presidential election is to compile and carry out the RPJMN in the best period of Indonesia’s demographic bonus. From 2020 to 2024, the dependency ratio would be 45, meaning every 100 productive-age people would bear the burden of 45 non-productive-age people.
Acceleration in education, health, human resources and socio-cultural development from 2020 to 2024 may transform the demographic bonus into an economic one. People’s welfare would increase and so would the nation’s competitiveness.
There are three prerequisites to achieve this. First, the productive-age population must obtain adequate employment and income. Second, women must be able to enter the labor market indiscriminately. Productive activities can improve the quality of female workers. Third, people’s savings must improve to reflect better access and savings capability. Savings are the driver of national economic growth.
All human development achievements would not be obtained instantly. Proper and sustainable strategies are required. Therefore, candidates for national leaders must use facts and data to formulate their strategic policies. Hopefully, the vice presidential debate on Sunday would be great, for the sake of a progressive Indonesia.
SONNY HARRY B HARMADI,
Chairman, Indonesian Population Coalition