Kota Gorontalo – G20 INDONESIAN PRESIDENCY EDUCATION WORKING GROUP | REPORT
Introduction
The Group of Twenty (G20) is an intergovernmental forum made up of some of the world’s leading economies, seeking to work together to coordinate policy and address the world’s major challenges. The G20 members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union. Spain is also invited as a permanent guest. Each year, the Presidency invites guest countries to take full part in the G20 exercise. Under the Indonesian G20 Presidency in 2022, the invited countries are Cambodia, the Netherlands, Rwanda, Singapore, Spain and the United Arab Emirates. Several international and regional organizations also participate, ensuring the forum represents a wide cross-section of the world’s countries.
The Indonesian Presidency recognizes the importance of collective action among major advanced and emerging economies around the world in assuring the world’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, building on the legacy of previous G20 summits, it has selected the theme of ‘Recover together, recover stronger’ to guide the direction of the forum’s work. The forum will specifcally focus on three main pillars: Global Health Architecture, Sustainable Energy Transition and Digital Transformation (see Box 1).
The focus on collaboration, expressed more broadly through the principles of solidarity and partnership, carries particular resonance in Indonesia, where the concept of gotong royong (mutual assistance) represents ‘notions of moral obligation and generalized reciprocity’, rooted in harmonious social relations motivated by an ‘ethos of selflessness and concern for the common good’ (Bowen, 1986). This concept, linked to community mobilization, has been an intrinsic feature of Indonesia’s approach to development. Accordingly, the Government of Indonesia has put solidarity and partnerships at the core of its G20 Presidency education agenda.
Working together on education is all the more important because the future growth and shared prosperity of G20 countries will be heavily influenced by the quality of their education systems, as captured in the learning outcomes they generate, their readiness to adjust to the future of work, their ability to galvanize the potential of technologies, and their capacity to nurture multistakeholder, multilevel cooperation and solidarity between schools, nations and the greater international community. Acting decisively to respond to the pandemic’s effects on student learning and well-being could help mitigate the consequences of the crisis. G20 countries may also need to reassess the quality and equity of their education systems in light of lessons learned from the crisis, examining what has worked well and what may need to be strengthened and transformed to achieve national and international commitments.
This report examines education policy responses in G20 countries, beginning with an investigation of the toll of the COVID-19 crisis on learning. Afer framing the report in Chapter 1, the following chapters will explore the four priority areas of the G20 Indonesian Presidency: solidarity and partnerships at all system levels; universal quality education; digital technology; and skills for the future of work. Chapter 2 examines the policy measures taken to support solidarity and partnerships between schools, nations and the greater international community. Chapter 3 focuses on universal quality education, which is at the heart of the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4) and explores the many emerging trends towards digital transformation. Chapter 4 explores the ways in which countries are attempting to make education systems future-ready in alignment with the future of work. Chapter 5 proposes policy recommendations for G20 countries.
G20 INDONESIAN PRESIDENCY EDUCATION WORKING GROUP | REPORT
