Best In All, The Mayor Of Cilegon Achieves High Education Award

Head of LLDIKTI Region IV Answerarat-Banten, M Samsuri together with the Mayor of Cilegon Helldy Agustian. (Photo: Special)

JAKARTA - The Mayor of Cilegon Helldy Agustian won a silver winner award from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia (RI), the district/city category, contributed the highest to higher education based on the 2023 Region IV Higher Education Institution (LLDIKTI) Report.

The award given at Tangerang City Novotel placed Cilegon City as the first best district/city in Banten Province in contributing to higher education and successfully entering the second best to get rid of 33 other districts/cities in the IV region.

Head of LLDIKTI Region IV Responsar-Banten, M Samsuri said, the awarding which was coupled with the LLDIKTI Region IV Coordination Meeting (Rakor) in Region IV, Ansponsarat-Banten was a form of appreciation for regional heads who had policies and a major contribution to higher education. There are three regencies/cities in the IV region that have the highest contribution, namely Indramayu Regency, Cilegon City and Purwakarta Regency.

"We give this award to regional heads who have education policies. We understand that educational institutions, government, the business world and industry need to work together. Because, we have an orientation for quality education, only then do we talk about quantity and participation figures," said Samsuri in his remarks as released by Cilegon City Communication and Information Office, Thursday 17 February.

On that basis, Samsuri added, at the moment of giving the LLDIKTI Region IV Award and Coordination Meeting, Responsar-Banten was also signed a memorandum of cooperation agreement with a number of regencies/cities in Answer-Banten.

"We invite regional heads in Answer-Banten. Therefore, there are 16 regencies/cities that signed a memorandum of cooperation with LLDIKTI," he added.

According to Samsuri, in the Amalrat and Banten areas, there are 445 private universities (PTS) with 7 of them having superior accreditations, while for State Universities (PTN) there are 13 with 6 of them superior accreditations.

"In the education curriculum, there will be 3 semesters of off-campus learning, namely in the government, the business world and industry. If we work together, then we can use this momentum as well as possible," he said.

In this case, Samsuri hopes that regional heads who have higher education programs such as scholarships or others can coordinate with LLDIKTI.

"We will synchronize it with the programs in the ministry, so that it can be balanced," he said.

Meanwhile, the Mayor of Cilegon Helldy Agustian explained that his party had taken various steps to develop Human Resources (HR) in Cilegon City. In addition to building school infrastructure at the elementary and secondary levels, the Cilegon City Government has also rolled out a full-graduate scholarship program.

"In order to prepare the golden generation, infrastructure and facilities we build. We also prepare scholarships for 5,000 people for 5 years or at least 1,000 people per year. Each person gets Rp. 3 million multiplied by 8 semesters. In 2021 there will be 525 scholarship recipients, in 2022 there will be 1,208 people and in 2023 we will target 1,300 people," he explained.

In addition, Helldy also admitted that his party continues to build cooperation with 2 PTN and around 26 PTS in Cilegon City and Banten Province, so there is no longer any reason for generations in Cilegon City not to continue their education until college.

"Alhamdulillah, with the socialization and scholarship programs, the participation rate has increased. We will try hard to continue to carry out development, not only physically but also the quality of the people of Cilegon City," said Helldy while expressing his gratitude and appreciation to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia for the award given to the City Government (Pemkot) Cilegon.

The Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, Nadim Makarim, said that it took courage for university leaders to make changes to the campus governance system towards a better direction and to innovate on the implementation of the university tridarma.

"The most important thing is to change the mainset with quality higher education. Campuses must be an independent space for learning, safe and comfortable and free from violence. This is the basis for quality campuses," he said.