Secretary of the ministry's Directorate General of Vocational, Special Education, and Special Service Education Muhammad Hasbi noted that in Indonesia, women's participation in STEM is still relatively low, with only eight percent of women working in the fields.
"Yet, women bring an empathetic perspective that is crucial for developing technology that is fair and responsive to social needs," he said at the "Demo Day - Innovation Women 2025" forum in Jakarta on Wednesday.
According to him, to ensure that artificial intelligence is not biased, women must participate not only as users but also as creators, innovators, and technology leaders.
To this end, he affirmed that his ministry is determined to continuously strengthen the learning ecosystem so that it can adapt to technological changes, particularly surrounding artificial intelligence, through several strategic steps.
First, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has integrated digital literacy and artificial intelligence into the school curriculum, which has been underway since late 2024.
In addition, the ministry has also designed the implementation of project-based learning in various related subjects to familiarize students with solving real-world problems.
"Especially in vocational education, project-based learning is the main approach to help our students acquire practical work skills before they enter the workforce," he remarked.
Furthermore, the ministry is also continuously building collaboration and synergy with industry players to ensure the knowledge taught at schools is relevant to market demand.
"Vocational education serves as a bridge, allowing women to access applicable digital skills and make them ready to work in the industrial sector," he said.
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Translator: Hana Dewi, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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