(FEB NEWS) Friday, September 1 2023, from Fajar Notonegoro Hall, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga (FEB UNAIR) held a guest lecture entitled "Breaking Vicious Circle of Poverty with Education: Case in Malaysia", with speaker Prof. Dr. M. Firdaus, SP., M.Si - Educational and Cultural Attache Representative of the Republic of Indonesia in Kuala Lumpur. Acting as moderator, Head of the Department of Economics FEB UNAIR - Prof. Rossanto Dwi Handoyo, SE, M.Si., Ph.D. The event was opened by the Dean of FEB UNAIR, Prof. Dian Agustia, SE, M.Si., AK., CMA., CA. in front of more than 150 economics and business faculty students from bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels. 
Prof. Firdaus conveyed many facts on the ground regarding the conditions of Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia that are still not widely known. Migrant workers, who have long been considered contributors to the country's foreign exchange, have high social costs, including the risk of torture, sexual violence, AIDS, divorce, and so on. Apart from that, many migrant workers marry without legal documents, giving rise to the problem of structural stupidity as a result of the difficulty of accessing proper education for their children, one clear proof of which is the large number of 13 year old children who are illiterate. Knowing this, the Indonesian government made an agreement with the Malaysian government to provide access to education for the children of undocumented migrant workers so that by 2023 there will be a 70% increase in the number of new students.
Another fact is that the province of East Java is the main contributor to Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia. According to Prof. Firdaus, the main pull factor for migrant workers is the difference in income received which is higher than working domestically. In fact, Indonesia, especially East Java, has great potential in the agricultural sector, but the level of education and human resource skills is still low, resulting in minimal innovation. Therefore, in the future the Indonesian government will try to break the chain of poverty among migrant workers by providing access to proper education for their children so that it is hoped that this can improve their families' economic conditions.
At the end of the event, he advised the students to take part in breaking the chain of poverty and ignorance by providing access to proper education for less fortunate children. He believes that education is a bridge to bring out innovations and creative ideas for the nation's children that can lead to better change.
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