Indonesia and the U.S. Celebrate Success of Basic Education Program in Indonesia

 May 14, 2007

Bahasa Indonesia

Educators and district-level dignitaries from across the country gathered in Jakarta on Monday to celebrate the success of the first United States-funded education program in two decades. The U.S. Chargé d’Affaires, John Heffern, addressed representatives from 23 districts as they began a three-day final review of the program which laid the groundwork for President Bush’s $157 million Education Initiative in Indonesia. 

Stressing the importance of education as one of the key factors to ensuring the creation of a democratic and prosperous nation, Chargé Heffern said: “The four-year, $10 million dollar program, brought by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to district schools in 2003, has met its goal of helping to build quality local education systems throughout Indonesia.” USAID’s Managing Basic Education (MBE) program, which ends its fifth and final year in June, is currently being implemented in 20 districts on Java and two in Aceh.

Providing educational support to 449 schools over its five year history, MBE served as the pilot for the on-going USAID-funded Decentralized Basic Education (DBE) project, which will continue through 2010. The DBE program, part of USAID’s commitment to improving the quality of basic education, has already been credited with significantly raising student achievement scores in reading, science and mathematics.

Nearly 200 participants attended the review meeting, including district-level members of education departments, departments of religion, planning boards, education boards, parliamentarians and educators.

The program has been credited with assisting in the creation of school development plans, helping make school budgets transparent for local communities and the encouraging the formation of parent groups. Under the MBE program, classrooms have become attractive and stimulating places for children, with samples of student academic and artistic projects prominently displayed. Implementing schools have seen improved student attendance. This has had a particular impact in Aceh where it has helped children and teachers overcome the effects of the earthquake and tsunami.

There has been a high demand for replication of the Managing Basic Education Program, with individual districts disseminating the program to more than 6,000 schools using their own funds.

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