Webinar: Quality education and disabilities inclusion

By Nur Syuhadah Zulkifli and Syasya Maisarah Abu Halim

GOMBAK, 3 May 2021: “The responsibilities are on everyone, we need to collaborate in order to give an improvement to the quality of education for people including the disabilities instead of blaming people,” founder of Live To Share, Mr. Widodo said during a webinar.

Focusing on the SDG 4, Quality Education, this 30-minute webinar elaborates on the situation of the education system happening in Indonesia.

The speaker started by expressing the condition of teaching during COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. Since it is a country full of islands, education may not reach certain parts of the country due to lack of internet connection and gadgets.

With that being the case, the founder of Live To Share thought SDG is indeed a good reason and a notion to overcome the issue. These goals will be a notable encouragement for both government and society to target and aim for a better quality of education.

As the SDG 4 centres around quality education for all people including the disabled people, Mr. Widodo asserted that societies need to have knowledge on how to contribute to supporting quality education by training, educating and giving understanding on the significance of quality education for people.

He further stated that people living in rural areas are not aware of the importance of quality education since they do not have the capability and fundamental to achieve quality in education.

With the situation in Indonesia having a lot of islands and rural areas, he stressed that the government as well as the communities, should unite and cooperate to give support for a betterment of quality education especially education for the disabled people.

He added that the Indonesian government had made a lot of effort in providing excellence education for all genders. However, there is more headway to refine the quality of education for disability school. 

In Indonesia, a mere and obtrusive works where several schools for students with different abilities and need special treatment are constructed, but those schools are not well managed.

“Most disabled students are born with special talents such as in arts, music, tailoring and others which is why they must be included in receiving quality education to bring out the best in them,” said Mr. Widodo based on his experience. Eventually, he said, it could improve the country’s development.

Mr. Widodo who had travelled to some rural areas for supporting the quality of education in Indonesia as well as doing research retrieved from United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), assumed that there is a long way to go and it is unrealistic to hit those SDG targets in 2023.

Besides, he mentioned that we fall behind those developed countries which are carrying out a better system of education. “Their education is moving fast compared to ours,” he uttered.

Nevertheless, seeing how communities in remote areas focus and put effort on education despite not having much help, gives him reliance and belief that this issue is improving slowly.

Mr. Widodo, who is also part of Pelangi Book, Indonesia Mengajar and Sekolah Cerdas said: “People should learn as long as they can align with Islamic teachings.”

“Knowledge and wisdom does not necessarily come with age. As has been said, acquire knowledge from the cradle to the grave.”

He hoped that the local authorities and the community would join hand to improve the quality of education in Indonesia thoroughly regardless of any condition.

Held last Friday (30 April), the webinar on the 4th SDG was organised by Professional Speech Communication class and has welcomed IIUM communities to be attuned on the prominence of quality education for the public including the disabilities community. ***

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