The Contribution of the Education System Quality to Improve the Nation’s Competitiveness of Indonesia

Abstract

The quality of education and the competitiveness of college graduates in Indonesia is still far behind, both at the international level, even at the level of ASEAN. In the other side, the issue of demographic bonus in Indonesia become an important factor in the development of human resources. The Indonesian population increased continuously about 1.49% per year. The impact of the quality of education is the nation’s competitiveness. Before analyzing its aspects, the data about the nation’s competitiveness can be used as a reference. Although not entirely represent competitiveness, this data can function as an  indicator of progress. Good human resources will be the driving factor for a variety of activities a state and a nation can make, including the economy. In the development of competitiveness, a country is positioned in its change of factor-driven to innovation-driven. The important problems arousing in education are: the quality of school management, quality of research and training, the quality of the education system, and also the higher education participation rate is still low. These four main things that need to be improved in education before it can move to other sectors. The main problem on education in Indonesia is in the low focus on the development of mentality or character. While the analysis of competitiveness problems Indonesia is known that the root problem in competitiveness is the high level of corruption in the country. This is a problem of mentality.