ASM
Tackling the Skills Shortage in Indonesia
A shortage of skilled surveyors is biting across the region. In Indonesia and other developing countries where the need is especially severe, the lack of trained manpower is impacting heavily on the rate of economic growth.
Brahmana Adhie and Oloan Sitorus used an address to the FIG working week in Hong Kong to dicuss plans to combat the problem in Indonesia.
A shortage of skilled surveyors is biting across the region. In Indonesia and other developing countries where the need is especially severe, the lack of trained manpower is impacting heavily on the rate of economic growth., according to Brahmana and Oloan.
'For Indonesian society, land has multi-dimensional meanings. Title to work the land is a production tool that will bring prosperity. From a political point of view, land ownership determines one’s position in a society and is used to underpin political or social power,' they said.
The authors started by examining the history of land law in Indonesia. The nation is home to more than 300 ethnic and sub-ethnic groups, so prior to colonisation, it is impossible to speak of an Indonesian administration; there were differences in the relationships with land and varying forms of land administration.
The first person to codify the adat or customary law in what we would now call Indonesia was Cornelius Van Vollenhoven at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Van Vollenhoven divided the then Dutch East Indies into 19 adat regions.
Indonesia endured more than 350 years of colonial rule during which traditional and Western notions of land law existed in an uneasy truce. This dualism was supposed to end after the declaration of independence in 1945 and the introduction of the first land laws in 1948.
However, one dualism has simply replaced another. In the 47 years since the registration of land rights was established under the law, less than 30 million parcels have been formally registered out of an estimated 85 million in the country.
There are many reasons for this. Poor governance and administration plays a part. More important is the lack of sufficient trained officials to survey and manage land effectively.
Presently, the National Land Agency manages all non-forest land affairs in Indonesia. It answers directly to the president. The NLA established the National Land Institute to train a cadre of land professionals. The development of the NLI over time has mirrored the development of land affairs in Indonesia.
The institute can trace its origins back to the Academy of Agraria, founded in Semarang, Central Java and Yogyakarta in 1963. The founding of the academy was closely related to the enactment of the 1960 Basic Agrarian Law, which made fundamental changes to the management of agriculltural land. The academy offered a three-year baccalaureate program in agrarian affairs.
In 1964, a new program was introduced that offered two qualifications to students: one in land registration and one in land use. By 1983, it was possible to undertake three-year programs in Land Rights, Land Use, Land Registration and Land Reform.
In 1989, the Agrarian Academy was redesigned to be the National Land Academy. It offered a three-year program in land affairs. In 1993, the name was changed again to the National Land Institute.
Currently, the NLI offers a four-year diploma program in land affairs, divided into programs in land management and land surveying. Once completed, this course entitles a student to be a surveyor of land affairs.
The NLI also offers a one-year diploma in cadastral surveying and mapping. The purpose of this course is to fill the need for qualified survey assistants.
The curriculum of the four-year course is designed to provide a good all-round education in land affairs. It operates under by a directive from the head of the National Land Agency, where most graduates will be employed.
It covers subjects such as state ideology, religion, civic education, Bahasa and English. There are streams on law, geodesy and geomatics, photogrammetry, urban and rural geography, cartography, remote sensing, spatial and regional planning, GIS, sociology, administration, leadership and organisation management, project and quality management.
Students in the one-year diploma study land measurement science while students following the full course are required to work on a thesis in their final year.
Academic staff at the NLI are constantly involved in curriculum redevelopment. Among the new studies being contemplated are coastal and small island management, the development of a marine cadastre and the revitalisation of agrarian reform.
There are still many forms of land tenure in Indonesia, which combined, give people a confusing set of rights and an open invitation to corrupution and abuse.
Graduates of the NLI and the other two unversities in Indonesia that supply graduates in land information are an important part of the long-term solution to this problem.
