Al Ma’Muriyah Madrasah—a school participating in EDC’s Decentralized Basic Education (DBE 2) in Jakarta, Indonesia—hosted a visit from U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, last week. The school is one of the seven schools in Jakarta participating in the DBE education project, which is funded by USAID and managed by EDC’s International Education Systems Division.

“President Bush is now advancing our commitment to education in this country,” said Dr. Rice. “When he visited Bali in 2003, he announced a landmark $157 million initiative to train Indonesian teachers. Today, graduates of this program are leading classes for over 300,000 Indonesian boys and girls across the country. And yesterday, I had the pleasure of visiting the Makmuriah School, right here in Jakarta.”

The school’s children greeted Secretary Rice by waving U.S. and Indonesian flags. She toured the school, and visited the second and sixth grade classrooms. In the sixth grade classroom, Secretary Rice joined in testing a variety of materials for electrical conductivity. In the second grade classroom, students were learning to measure objects using pencils, straws, their thumbs, and string. One of the students measured Secretary Rice’s arm using pencils.

After visiting the two classrooms, she announced the launch of another USAID-funded project, the Indonesian version of Sesame Street. USAID is providing a $8.5 million grant to develop Sesame Street Indonesia. DBE 2 will likely collaborate with Sesame Street on some early childhood aspects of the DBE 2 project.

The seven Jakarta schools are part of a larger DBE program expansion that will soon include Aceh province. The DBE program is funded through President Bush’s $157 million education initiative for Indonesia.