Increasing Educational Development in Papua through Special Autonomy Volume II
Lucas| Papuan Observer
One of the benefits felt by the Papuan people from the implementation of Special Autonomy (Otsus) in Papua is the quality improvement in the education sector. Director of the Kalaway Muda Institute, Nanny Uswanas stated that the development of Human Resources (HR) in the education sector in Papua and West Papua has increased significantly, which is none other than the impact of the special autonomy funds.
This impact includes the increasing number of Papuan youth who become scholars thanks to scholarships from the Special Autonomy fund. In fact, now Papuan youths are starting to get out of their comfort zone because of the times that are no longer fixated on becoming Civil Servants (PNS).
Now there are many Papuan youths who become entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, comics, Youtubers, and others. This shows that indigenous Papuan children have qualified talents and through educational development creates positive changes for the future of Papuan youth.
“The development of education in Papua has succeeded in changing the mindset of Papuan youth”
In addition to the evidence above, the positive impact of increasing education development in Papua is also evident from data from the Papua Province Central Statistics Agency (BPS) which records the Human Development Index (HDI) of Papua in general, progressing during the period 2010 to 2019.
However, in 2020, Papua’s HDI decreased from 60.84 in 2019 to 60.44 in 2020, resulting in a decrease of 0.66 percent in the 2019-2020 period. This decline is a record that shows that the implementation of Otsus must be evaluated to be able to improve the progress of Papua’s HDI, one of which is through the continuous improvement of education development in Papua.
The awareness of the importance of the development of Papua by the Government has been conveyed by the Special Staff of President Joko Widodo from Papua, Billy Mambrasar, who stated that the focus of the development of Papua as a whole now is education and health. Both are closely related to HR development.
Billy said that the highest autonomy budget allocation is for education development. This was proven himself because he came from an underprivileged family, but thanks to the special autonomy funds, he was able to pursue higher education until he became the CEO of the Kitong Bisa Foundation.
“Investing in humans is the right step, because they are the ones who will build their own civilization.”
Furthermore, Billy said that the Government through Presidential Instruction No. 9 of 2020 has also shown its commitment to building the welfare of the Papuan people. The Inpres also shows the Government’s concern in providing opportunities for the Papuan people to provide input and supervise the course of development so that it is fair, balanced and prosperous.
Therefore, it is appropriate that the monitoring and evaluation of the Otsus program must be carried out in a sustainable manner. Local governments must be proactive in overseeing the implementation of Otsus, so that the various goals it wants to proclaim can be achieved. The great attention of the Central Government towards education development in Papua must be utilized optimally.
