NUSA DUA, BALI (ANTARA) – The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology is accelerating the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology to increase access to higher education.
“Currently, only around 40 percent of high school students go on to university,” Prof Abdul Harris, director-general of the ministry's higher education department, said on the sidelines of an international conference on inclusive education in the digital age in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Tuesday.
According to Harris, access to higher education is hindered by infrastructure limitations, but this can be addressed through digital developments.
He said digital technologies, including AI, were the solution to solve the country's education challenges.
Haris highlighted that there are 4,356 higher education institutions in Indonesia, of which 8 percent are public higher education institutions and the majority, 92 percent, are private higher education institutions.
Indonesia’s geography consists of 17,000 islands and 5,245 kilometres of coastline, with a student population of around 10 million.
“It's difficult to reach these people, so the solution to provide access to education is through digital technology,” he said.
Harris said his country has been providing training to universities on the use of AI.
He further highlighted that the ministry has an AI center in the form of a high-capacity computing server facility that can be made available to Indonesian universities.
AI is a type of computing technology that will facilitate many aspects of life now and in the future.
Besides AI, the ministry's policies also include several related to the digitalization of higher education, including implementing Indonesia's National Labor Competency Standards, strengthening information technology, implementing research programs in computerization and computer engineering, forming a consortium of AI laboratories, and collaborating with technology companies to develop AI.
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