US-RI private sector partnership provides high-tech education

Antara News, Tuesday, July 27, 2010 10:27 WIB

Karawang, W Java (ANTARA News) - Partnership between the Government of Indonesia, the U.S. Government and seven private sector partners opened a pilot ICT lab at the Al-Ahliyah junior secondary school in Karawang, West Java, on Monday.

It aims to build free-standing IT labs at Indonesian junior secondary schools. The labs will be outfitted with cutting-edge technology provided by the private sector partners, the US embassy said in a media release made available here on Tuesday.

Al-Ahliyah received a state-of-the-art computer lab with equipment, software and educational resources. This effort builds on existing ICT and teacher-training cooperation between the U.S. Agency of International Development and the Ministry of Education. The U.S. Government also provided resources for teacher training and support as well as construction of the lab building.

The project will support the Government of Indonesia to (1) improve the relevance of education by increasing student opportunities to develop and apply 21st century life skills to their learning and (2) improve the quality of teachers in Indonesia and their ability to use ICT as a learning tool. The IT lab will provide students and teachers with hands-on opportunities to practice, apply and develop their ICT capability and to use ICT to support learning across all subjects.

This partnership is a concrete realization of the U.S. commitment to increase cooperation in the fields of science, technology and education. In his January 20 speech before the Indonesian Academy of Sciences, President Yudhoyono said, "It is increasingly obvious that economic growth and competitiveness of a nation is highly dependent on the mastery of technology."

This unique partnership will support the development of the "knowledge capital" that President Yudhoyono recognized as so vital to success in the 21st century. Private-sector partners include: PT Cisco Systems Indonesia; PT Hewlett-Packard Indonesia; PT Indosat Tbk; Intel Indonesia Corporation; PT Microsoft Indonesia; Oracle Corporation; and Qualcomm Incorporated.