"In facing this changing era, we still need the family planning program. We are not worried about the availability of food stocks. However, the development of the 4-IR will have implications on the number of required workers, Kalla stated here on Monday.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of a national symposium on challenges of the Family Planning and Family Development Program here, he pointed out that the number of workers in the industrial sector would decrease in future.
If, in the past, a factory needed a thousand workers, it would currently need merely some 200 to 300 employees to handle its automated and robotic equipment, Kalla explained.
Kalla opined that the ongoing development of the 4-IR, marked by automation and robotics, is relevant to be implemented in countries currently facing serious challenges of an ageing population, such as Japan and Singapore.
Antara noted that amid the real challenges of this era of disruption, the quality of Indonesia`s human resources varies. As the world`s fourth most populous country, it had yet to rank on the list of the world`s most literate nations.
John W. Miller`s study (CCSU, 2016) shows that the top 10 most literate nations are Finland, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, Germany, Latvia, and the Netherlands.
The study conducted by Miller, a noted researcher of the Central Connecticut State University, further revealed that Indonesia ranked 60th out of the 61 countries. Its rank was just better than that of Botswana, but it was left far behind by Singapore, ranking 36th, and Malaysia, at the 53rd place.
His study synthesized "literacy achievement tests (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study and Programme for International Student Assessment) and literate behavior characteristics (population, newspapers, libraries, years of schooling)" (2016).
Miller argued that a nation`s literate behaviors contribute to its success and failure in dealing with the demands of the world`s knowledge-based economics.
Reporting by Fransiska Ninditya
Editing by Rahmad Nasution/Eliswan Azly
Related News: Revitalizing family planning program
Reporter: Antara
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