August 2007

EDC Hosts Indonesian Educators

Education leaders from Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, have been visiting EDC this week as part of an educational exchange with U.S. educators, researchers, and policy makers. The Indonesia Study Tour is just one facet of a five-year, multimillion dollar education improvement initiative spearheaded by EDC’s International Education Systems Division (IES) and the Government of Indonesia and funded by USAID.

Known as the Decentralized Basic Education (DBE) program, it reaches 150,000 school children and 14,000 teachers across Indonesia. The comprehensive initiative touches nearly every facet of education in the country. It focuses on improving quality, access, and management of the education system.

“All three of these features are interconnected. You can’t expand quality or access unless the programs are managed well,” says delegation leader Dr. Fuad Abdul Hamied, Deputy Minister for the Coordination of Education, Religion, and Civil Service at the Ministry for People’s Welfare.

“We came to the U.S. to see how these educational challenges are being met here. There are similar educational challenges in your country, but the level of attainment here is different. The most important thing for us is to see that you too face similar concerns,” continues Hamied.

Access to quality education is of particular concern to education leaders in Indonesia, a country of more than 17,000 islands. “Some areas are so remote that teachers are spending the equivalent of a month’s salary on transportation costs,” says Hamied.

EDC’s Chief Technology Officer Bob Spielvogel spoke to the delegation on the potential for online educational resources to meet the needs of teachers and students in remote regions of the country. The delegation also met with EDC experts in the areas of mathematics and science education, online education, professional development, and education research.

Teacher quality is also a burning issue in Indonesia, where many primary school teachers are only primary school graduates themselves. “We hope to establish minimum standards of qualification and help teachers meet them,” says Hamied. “Professionalizing teachers is a big priority in this country.”

“The professional development discussions have been attracting questions from all of us,” says Hamied. “Improvement of education lies especially with the teacher. No matter how good our curriculum is or our universities are, when the teacher doesn’t perform well, the problem is there.”

In the course of their two-week tour, the high-level delegation will also visit other leading education institutions in Boston and Washington D.C. including the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Educational Testing Service, the National Staff Development Council, National Science Teachers Association, National Council for Teachers of Mathematics, International Society for Technology in Education, and National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.

“We don’t presume that here [in the U.S.] you will find all the answers, all the solutions,” says DBE 2 Project Director, Steve Anzalone. “But we have similar challenges with our education systems. To be a good professional is to be part of on-going professional development efforts—that’s why we’ve all come together.”

To learn more about DBE contact Steve Anzalone (SAnzalone@edc.org), read a feature story http://main.edc.org/newsroom/features/indonesia.asp, or visit the IES Web site http://ies.edc.org/wherewework/project.php?id=3607&
country=366.

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