The Track Record Of The Minister Of Education And Culture, Research And Technology, Nadiem Makarim And Its Controversies

JAKARTA - Nadiem Makarim is now carrying out additional assignments. If previously he only handled the Ministry of Education and Culture, Nadiem now also oversees research and technology and technology in the Ministry of Education and Culture-Research and Technology.

President Jokowi inaugurated Nadiem Makarim at the State Palace, Wednesday, April 28. The decision regarding the appointment of Nadiem as minister is contained in Presidential Decree Number 72 of 2021 concerning the Formation and Wage of Ministries and the Appointment of Several State Ministers of the Advanced Indonesian Cabinet for the Period of 2019-2024.

"By Allah, I swear that I will be loyal to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia and will carry out all laws and regulations in a straightforward manner, for the sake of my devotion to the nation and state. That in carrying out my duties I will uphold ethics. office, work as well as possible with a full sense of responsibility, "said Nadiem's oath of office in front of President Jokowi.

His full name is Nadiem Anwar Makarim. Born in Singapore, July 4, 1984. Nadiem is the third child of Nono Anwar Makarim and Atika Algadri. The father, Nono Anwar Makarim is a lawyer and activist in Indonesia. Meanwhile, Atika Algadri's mother is the daughter of one of Indonesia's independence pioneers, Hamid Algadri.

Nadiem Makarim is married to Franka Franklin and has one daughter named Solara Franklin Makarim.

Nadiem Makarim received primary to high school education by moving from Jakarta and Singapore. Nadiem pursued high school education in Singapore. Nadiem's lecture was also pursued at a university with the status of the Ivy League.

Nadiem Makarim's career began when he was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company in Jakarta. At the company, Nadiem worked for three years.

Then, he moved to Zalora Indonesia and held the position of Co-Founder and Managing Editor for one year. After that, Nadiem Makarim moved to a non-cash payment service company, KartuKu, and served as Chief Innovation Officer from 2013-2014.

Finally, Nadiem Makarim decided to set up his own company. Nadiem admitted that he was inspired to establish Gojek because he often used ojek transportation services to work. He wants to combine technology and motorcycle taxis into new innovations.

The presence of Gojek is a public transportation service with a 'new taste' in Indonesia. Not only transportation, Gojek also offers other services such as food delivery, massage, house cleaning, digital payment platforms, delivery of goods, shopping services, to buying services for drugs.

Now, Gojek has the status of a decacorn or a company with a valuation of over 10 billion US dollars.

Currently, Gojek has 125 million downloads, has more than 300,000 merchants, and operates in 207 cities / regencies in Indonesia. Gojek has also expanded overseas, namely Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore.

Nadiem Makarim is also a figure close to President Joko Widodo. This can be seen from the opportunity where Nadiem Makarim accompanied Joko Widodo to Silicon Valley, United States in October 2015.

At that time, Nadiem along with other startup company leaders such as Tokopedia founder William Tanudjaya, Kaskus founder Andrew Darwis, and Traveloka founder Ferry Unardi. At that time, Nadiem expressed his reasons for participating. Namely, wanting to promote Indonesia to global investors.

Then at the launch of the Gojek service in Vietnam, Go-Viet, last September 2018, Nadiem Makarim invited President Joko Widodo.

In the event, President Joko Widodo was even present in person with a number of ministers.

Nadiem's journey to become Minister of Education and Culture of Research and Technology is certainly not free from many criticisms regarding his controversial policy evaluation. In fact, at the beginning of his tenure as Minister of Education and Culture, Nadiem had many problems.

Following are Nadiem's most controversial policies that have been criticized by board members:

The council questioned Nadiem's policy of extending distance learning (PJJ). This method is indeed good in reducing the spread of COVID-19, but on the one hand the Ministry of Education and Culture does not have a breakthrough.

Member of the DPR Nasdem Faction Banggar, Percha Leanpuri, said that as a very well-known technology creator in Indonesia, Nadiem should have been able to create technological breakthroughs in the Indonesian education system.

According to the member of Commission VI of the DPR, in PJJ there are still many schools that use different learning applications. Even in one school, only different teachers can use different learning platforms.

Moreover, the comparison between schools at the center and in the regions is very different. So he asked Nadiem to be able to create this in addition to a uniform platform.

"The current webinar uses different applications. Will the Minister as a technology expert later, can there be a uniform application breakthrough in this learning?" he said in the Banggar Meeting Room, Wednesday, July 15.

Not yet finished with the PJJ issue, the Ministry of Education and Culture under Nadiem issued a Program Mobilizing Organization (POP) policy which was deemed to have made a lot of noise.

A member of Commission X DPR from the Gerindra faction, Ali Zamroni, said in a working meeting of Commission X with Minister Nadiem some time ago, it was stated that the total financing charged to the APBN in this program reached nearly Rp. 600 billion.

"It is quite ironic that currently there are three large organizations that have declared their resignation in the organizing program, namely NU, Muhammadiyah and PGRI. We know how these three organizations have contributed to building the world of education in Indonesia for a long time and information has not passed several worthy organizations such as Muslimat NU, Aisyiyah, IGNU, and others, "said Ali Zamroni, Monday, July 27.

According to Ali, the ones who were embarrassed and resigned from this program were large private institutions such as the Sampoerna Foundation and the Tanoto Foundation, not NU, Muhammadiyah, and PGRI. Ali admitted that he was not surprised by the upheaval made by Minister Nadiem at this time because since he was inaugurated until now, many of Nadiem's policies were controversial.

The Education Vision 2035 compiled in the Education Roadmap has been criticized for not including religious phrases.

A member of the DPR from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) faction, Al Muzzammil Yusuf, firmly asked the Ministry of Education and Culture to withdraw the draft Education Roadmap because of the case. The DPR itself has two notes regarding this formula.

First, the Education Roadmap must refer to Law Number 15 of 2019 concerning amendments to Law Number 12 of 2011 concerning the Formation of Legislation, which stipulates that a presidential regulation may only be issued if there is an order of law and a government order. As long as this is not fulfilled, he said, the Education Roadmap cannot be used as a presidential regulation.

Second, Muzammil also found that the progress of the current Education Roadmap concept did not match what it was originally proposed.

"We are worried that the mindset of the so-called Perpres or road map from the start does not refer to the spirit of the constitution and the education law," he said, Monday, March 8.