Minister of Transportation Wants Shipping Schools to Revive RI’s Maritime Glory
Minister of Transportation Wants Shipping Schools to Revive RI’s Maritime Glory
Jakarta – Minister of Transportation, Budi Karya Sumadi hopes that the existence of shipping schools in Indonesia can revive maritime glory as felt during the kingdom era. He conveyed this at the Centennial Celebration of the Revitalization of Maritime Education which was held by the Center for Education, Refreshment and Improvement of Maritime Science (BP3IP).
In the event which was held at the Nusantara Passenger Port, Tanjung Priok, Budi explained how the development of shipping education in Indonesia had started since the era of the Kutai kingdom.
“The development of Maritime Education in Indonesia has started since the kingdom era, starting with the oldest kingdom in the archipelago since the Kutai Kingdom in 400 AD which is estimated to have been established in the Muarakaman area on the banks of the Mahakam river, East Kalimantan, which is thought to be a stopover for international trade routes through the Makassar Strait. ” said Budi Karya, Wednesday (24/11/2021).
It was this maritime glory in the era of kingdoms and sultanates that made the Dutch establish a shipping school in Indonesia called ‘Kweekschool voor Inlandsche Schepelingen te Makassar’ (Vocational School for Native Ship Crews in Makassar) in 1915.
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Budi then explained that the seeds and instincts to become a seafaring nation left by his ancestors prompted the reopening of the Sulawesi Sea Crossing Training School (SLPS).
“The ancestors of this nation were a maritime nation. It is not surprising that the seeds and instincts to become a great seafaring nation then encouraged the re-opening of the Seafaring School in Makassar in 1950 with a new name, namely the Sulawesi Sea Crossing Training School (SLPS) with two majors, namely Nautical and Teknika,” he explained.
Therefore, it is not surprising that maritime education in Indonesia is still developing rapidly in Indonesia today. Supported by its geographical location consisting of more than 17 thousand islands, Indonesia is one of the largest seafaring producing countries in the world and has the potential to become the world’s maritime axis.
“Indonesia, with its geographical condition consisting of more than 17 thousand islands, which is also one of the largest seafaring producing countries in the world and has a vision to make Indonesia the world’s maritime axis, makes shipping education play an important role in creating superior shipping human resources,” said Budi.
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In order to realize this vision, according to Budi, development is needed in the human resources (HR) sector as well as mastery of science and technology, which of course cannot be separated from the role of educational activities.
“Currently there are 10 Sailing Vocational Colleges and two Shipping Training Centers under the Ministry of Transportation, 18 Colleges and Academies outside the Ministry of Transportation, as well as 34 State and Private Shipping Vocational Schools that have received approval from the Directorate General of Transportation,” he said.
“We should be grateful that this year, one of the Shipping Universities, namely STIP Jakarta, has also started providing vocational higher education in the field of shipping at the Postgraduate level,” he said.
Based on data at the beginning of the last quarter of 2021, there were 1,230,909 sailors sailing at home and abroad. Of this number, around 28.5% or 351,363 seafarers work for foreign shipping companies.
They fill various positions ranging from rating to Chief Engineer and Captain, with the amount of foreign exchange generated reaching approximately IDR 98 trillion per year
“I hope that the celebration of One Century of Revitalization of Indonesian Maritime Education will become a momentum where we emulate the struggles and efforts that have been carried out to improve the quality of Maritime Education in Indonesia,” concluded Budi.
Meanwhile, the Director of BP3IP, Sugeng Wibowo, explained that the Centennial Celebration of the Revitalization of Indonesian Maritime Education aims to reconstruct the history of shipping education which has developed a long way since 1915 through the discovery of artifacts at PIP Makassar and elevate maritime education to become even more successful.
"This is a form of commitment of the entire maritime education community and stakeholders to move together, harmonize Indonesia and color the world of maritime both at the national and international levels," he said.
“The aim of this event is to celebrate the revitalization of shipping education, to reconstruct the history of shipping education which has developed since 1915 with the discovery of artifacts at PIP Makassar and to raise shipping education to be even more successful,” he explained.
Sugeng also hopes that in the future maritime education in Indonesia can keep pace with the flow of global developments in the era of digitalization through improvements in human resources and IT.
“Our true hope has been opened wide by the leadership, we just need to be more creative, more advanced, more balanced with global flows in this era of digitalization,” he said.
“So that in this era of digitalization, our schools can keep up with the development of knowledge, by using long distance, improving IT, with human resources too. I think that, hopefully this can be achieved and of course we will also improve our way of communicating and collaborating. ,” concluded Sugeng.
