During his speech, Prof. Kadarsah expressed his gratitude to Minister Luhut upon his arrival on ITB out of his tight schedule. The Studium Generale then proceed with a public lecture by Minister Luhut entitled “The Challenge of Development Equality in Indonesia: Problems and Solutions” with Prof. Ir. Ricky Lukman Tawekal, a lecturer at Ocean Engineering Program at ITB as moderator.

Minister Luhut began his lecture with a story about his then poor family. He explained that his mother was an elementary school dropout and his father was a truck driver. “Do not be ashamed of your family’s background. Focus more on your study and your future career,” he said. He asserted that family background should not deter someone from achieving his dream as he was able to prove it.

Minister Luhut reminded the students to be more sensitive on issues about Indonesian economy, specifically to the equality of infrastructure improvement. According to him, instead of being pessimistic, we have to work harder to improve the economy of Indonesia because of the evident rise of economic growth every year despite unsteady economic condition. It is supported by a statement by World Bank Group, Press Release EODB 2017, “Indonesia is amongst the top 10 improvers in doing business 2017: equal opportunity for all.”

However, that is not the only factor that guarantee improvement of Indonesia since Indonesia still has much to do to improve education quality. Improvement of education has to be a focus because it will affect demographic dividend. Without proper education system to incorporate demographic dividend, it will instead be a disadvantage to Indonesia.

Looking further, equal distribution of education is not yet carried out in Indonesia. A survey shows that 57% of education is centralized in Java, 23% is in Sumatera while the few other is outside of Java and Sumatera. It is exacerbated by uneven distribution of investment where 55,2% is in Java, 22,5% is in Sumatra while the few other is outside of Java and Sumatera.

Looking further, equal distribution of education is not yet carried out in Indonesia. A survey shows that 57% of education is centralized in Java, 23% is in Sumatera while the few other is outside of Java and Sumatera. It is exacerbated by uneven distribution of investment where 55,2% is in Java, 22,5% is in Sumatra while the few other is outside of Java and Sumatera.