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Jakarta, InfoPublik - Education, Culture, Research and Technology Minister, Nadiem Anwar Nakarim, stated that the unexpected pandemic had taught the whole world how important and urgent collaboration between countries in overcoming hate speech and violence, especially in times of social restrictions and travel bans, which have made social media an increasingly important place to interact.
“Globally, we have seen the rise of hate speech, plus the pressure from COVID-19 pandemic, racism, and violence. We must act together to overcome these challenges,” said the minister as quoted in a release from Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry in Jakarta, Friday, October 29, 2021.
In his speech at the virtual Global Education Ministers Conference on Addressing Hate Speech through Education, which was held by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Office on the Prevention of Genocide, Tuesday, October 26, 2021, Education, Culture, Research and Technology Minister said "Education, especially literacy, is a strong strategy to face these challenges," said Minister Nadiem Nakarim who emphasized the importance of training on critical thinking skills and the use of digital platforms, especially among young people.
“Critical thinking skills help children understand and analyze the essential meaning of information. This will prevent them from believing fake news and misinformation. They will practice using critical reasoning to evaluate and to question the validity of information. This must continue to be our top priority. So, we must build an education system that supports our efforts to defeat hate speech,” said Minister Nadiem Anwar Nakarim.
“Since 2015, the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry has continued to strive for the development of student literacy through the National Literacy Movement. This movement aims to create a strong educational environment in school, family and community life,” he said.
“Through the National Literacy Movement, we encourage schools to incorporate literacy into curriculum. We also work with book clubs and communities to create reading activities for children. This helps children develop critical skills and protects them from hate speech,” said Minister Nadiem Makarim.
Minister Nadiem Makarim also called for cooperation among countries in the world to build international solidarity in dealing with hate speech. "Hopefully our discussions in this conference will generate many results, and I hope for joint cooperation in the future," said the Minister.
For information, the conference was attended by education ministers from countries around the world as an initiative of UN Secretary General António Guterres and UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay to strengthen efforts to fight hate speech on- and offline. The agenda of the conference was to discuss efforts to build youth resilience against hate speech, with the aim of producing recommendations on joint action at all levels of education, prioritizing media and information literacy, teacher training and raising public awareness on digital citizenship.
Previously, the United Nations and UNESCO had called on countries to take action to control the global phenomenon of hate speech. Strengthening the education response to build learners' resilience to the rhetoric of exclusion and hatred is also a key point of the 2030 Education Agenda, and more specifically Target 4.7 of Sustainable Development Goal 4 on social, moral and humanistic purposes of education.
(Source: Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, Republic of Indonesia)
Translator :Sugiarti