Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Indonesian: Kementerian Pendidikan, Kebudayaan, Riset, dan Teknologi, abbreviated Kemendikbudristek) was a government ministry of the Indonesian government responsible for education, cultural, research, and technology affairs. Its formation resulted from the merger of the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Research and Technology in April 2021. In October 2024, under the Red White Cabinet, the ministry was split into three ministries: Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, and Ministry of Cultural Affairs.
On 30 March 2021, President Joko Widodo submitted a Presidential Letter to People's Representative Council, which contained a proposal for major changes in the national cabinet, one of which was the merger of the Ministry of Research and Technology and the Ministry of Education and Culture into one ministry named the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. The National Research and Innovation Agency (Indonesian: Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional, abbreviated BRIN) was to be separated as a new non-ministerial agency.
On 9 April 2021, the People's Representative Council approved the proposal, along with the creation of the new Ministry of Investment. On 13 April 2021, Ali Mochtar Ngabalin, a spokesperson for and specialist of the Presidential Staff Office, announced that a second reshuffle of the Onward Indonesia Cabinet was to take place on second week of April 2021. The reshuffle was finally announced on 28 April 2021. It was the first of its kind, because not only were the ministers reshuffled, but cabinet institutions were also disbanded mid-term. In this reshuffle, Nadiem Makarim was appointed as the first Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, according to the Presidential Decision No. 72/P/2021. On the same day, the President formally recognized the ministry as one of the thirty-four Indonesian government ministries.
On 30 July 2021, President Joko Widodo issued the permanent constituting document of the ministry, Presidential Decree No. 62/2021. The decree itself backdated to 15 July 2021.
Hasto Kristiyanto, the General Secretary of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, praised the move. He expressed his hope that, with the merger, the now independent BRIN would play an important role in accelerating the growth of research in Indonesia. The Deputy Chief of Commission X in the People's Representative Council, Hetifah Syaifudian of Golkar, also praised the move. She commented that the merger might help the research synergy between academia and research agencies.
The deputy chief of the Prosperous Justice Party faction in the People's Representative Council Mulyanto from the opposition criticized the decision, saying that the change was not effective. He claimed that the government had not learned from the previous merger of the Ministry of Research and Technology and the General Directorate of Higher Education, which formed the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education. While the merger was successful, Mulyanto claimed that the ministry was not effective when combined to manage research and technology development and educational affairs. He also cited that in previous cabinet, the administrative migration and adaptation processes in a new ministry required at least three years. Not only that, the presence of the non-ministerial National Research and Innovation Agency to coordinate and facilitate state research and development would result in an overlap with some of the tasks of the ministry.
The governing coalition also voiced criticisms. While the Chief of Commission X in the People's Representative Council, Syaiful Huda of the National Awakening Party, praised the move, he criticized the timing of the formation of the new ministry, happening in the middle of the second term of the ruling government, when normally such a major change would have been done earlier. Citing the issue of lengthy administrative migration and adaptation processes, Huda urged that the transitional process must be done as soon as possible, in a maximum time of one year after the formation of the new ministry, stressing the importance of research during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also commented that such a merger will put heavy load to the new ministry because both of preceding ministries had very different focuses.
In the aftermath of the release of the Presidential Decree No. 62/2021, the formation of the General Directorate of Higher Education, Research, and Technology was also criticized by officials of the ministry. An official from the Quality Control Department, Johannes Gunawan, criticized the government for not learning from failures of the past, citing past mismanagement of expert personnel.
In 2022, the ministry initiated curriculum policy options as part of efforts to mitigate learning loss and as a form of learning recovery. The ministry provides three options for educational units to implement a curriculum based on the National Education Standards that was in accordance with the learning needs and context of each educational unit. The three options are as follows:
The ministry launched the Independent Curriculum (Indonesian: Kurikulum Merdeka) as part of learning activities' recovery process. The curriculum was designed to be more flexible, focus on essential material, and develop students' character and competence. The main characteristics of this curriculum that support learning recovery are:
Unlike other ministries in Indonesia, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology possessed a shadow organization outside its structure, which was quite large in size and plays a significant role in ministry policies and outputs. The shadow organization's presence was disclosed in September 2022. The organization was described as "unusual and abnormal" with around 400 members, comparable in size to a General Directorate of a ministry, from product managers, data scientists, and software engineers. The shadow organization performed some extent of research and development activities on behalf of the Ministry. The presence of the organization surprised many Indonesians, as for the first time in Indonesian politics a shadow organization was used by a ministry. For the disclosure, Nadiem confirmed the existence of the shadow organization and the shadow organization actually a legal tenderized collaboration between the ministry with GovTech Edu, a state-owned company subsidiary of Telkom. Such move criticized by People's Representative Council, and mass organizations advocating teachers' welfare and education. Critics criticized that such move was "wasteful" and "disrespectful" towards thousands original human resources employed by the ministry.
The minister of education, culture, research, and technology, appointed by the president at his own discretion, was by Presidential Decree No. 62 of 2021. The head of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, under and responsible to the president. The decree also created the Office of Deputy Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, though it was currently vacant.
Initially, the organizational structure of the ministry was a direct merger of the structures of the two preceding cabinet ministries. However, the structure was deemed too large and ineffective.
The structure of the Ministry was expanded by Ministerial Decree No. 28/2021, and updated with Ministerial Decree No. 16/2024 into:
A smaller version of the Ministry of Research and Technology, the General Directorate of Higher Education, Research, and Technology, was created within the ministry in pursuance of Presidential Decree No. 62/2021, to govern and regulate science, research, and technology in Indonesia after dismantlement of Ministry of Research and Technology. Despite that, the coordination between the ministry and the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) was not yet made clear in the constituting document. Minister Nadiem Makarim asserted that BRIN was a partner of the ministry in performing researches, and not a subordinate of the ministry. While the presidential decree did not clearly separate the scope of the limitation of the ministry and coordination with BRIN, the Ministerial Decree No. 28/2021 distinguished BRIN as a separate entity and clearly outlined the ministry's power in regulating scientific, research, and technology affairs, confirming Makarim's statement. The ministerial decree also confirmed the relinquishment of its National Archaeology Research Institute to BRIN.
As overseer of science, research, and technology in Indonesia, the Ministry has roles to oversee and preparing regulations and technical policies of science, research, and technology. Despite overseer rule, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology also have research functions, but only limited to academic research. State research and development activities, non-academic governmental strategic research, and policy research are performed by BRIN.
After Prabowo Subianto was inaugurated as a President of Indonesia, under the Red White Cabinet, the ministry was split into three ministries, there are: Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, and Ministry of Cultural Affairs.