66276 The Imperative for Connected Schools in Indonesia Policy Brief January 2012 4. Support aggregation of all current educational content into a single Rumah Belajar, as is currently being implemented by Pustekkom. 5. Commence a sustained advocacy drive to encourage schools to get connected in order to enable access to the BOS/DAK facilities and to the Rumah Belajar. The Imperative for Connected Schools in Indonesia Why Should We Connect Schools to the Internet? The 2014 MoEC Vision is to deliver excellent national education services in order to create comprehensively bright Indonesian Ibu Delhi and her students in active learning with ICT session in Medan, North Sumatera. individuals. Photo by Popo Alexander. Excellent national education services are defined as being: • Available equally across the entire country; Summary • Affordable by all levels of society; Research conducted by the World Bank has demonstrated that the • Quality and relevant with the needs of society, business and Internet can connect the Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) industrial sectors; and schools throughout the archipelago. Up to 95 percent of schools • Equal to fellow Indonesian citizens in obtaining quality education are currently within affordable reach of at least low-speed Internet taking into account socio-cultural, economic, gender, and connectivity, enabling email, messaging, and downloads of limited geographical diversity; and size. Use of ICT can lead to improved information management at • Assurance that Indonesian citizens will receive education in line the national, district, and institutional levels, which will also benefit with the demands of society, business and industry. educators and students. Increased communication and information sharing can help improve low-performing schools, while digital curriculum resources Strategic and system-wide use of ICT and distance education can help low- Use of ICT is believed to support efforts to in Indonesian education is integral to capacity educators. All of the ingredients increase and equalize access to education, achieving the Ministry of Education and are in place to make this happen in improved quality, relevance, and education Culture (MoEC) vision because it supports Indonesia. competitiveness, along with management, all of these objectives. ICT facilitates more accountability, and public image of education. affordable and equitable access to teaching Given that this is technically and financially Application of ICT for education by MoNEcan and learning resources and provides feasible and that it is defined as a expand the affordability of education and opportunities to improve work and life policy commitment by the MoEC, it is strengthen governance at the same time. skills. Effective deployment of ICT has recommended that decision-makers: the potential to address key barriers that 2010 - 2014 MoNE Strategic Plan (Renstra) impede the improvement of education in 1. Enter into Framework Agreements Indonesia: with Telecommunications Operators/ Providers to enable schools to purchase annual Internet 1. The Internet can connect the MoEC and schools throughout subscriptions using BOS funding, and assuring Internet safety. the archipelago. Up to 95 percent of schools are currently within reach of at least low-speed Internet connectivity, enabling email, 2. Focus Jardiknas/SchoolNet connectivity rollout on those schools messaging, and downloads of limited size. that cannot afford connectivity with their current BOS funding allocations. 2. Use of ICT can lead to improved information management at the national, district, and institutional levels, which will also 3. Work systematically through the e-services requirements to benefit educators and students. This would include: manage school data submission, particularly for the BOS, and DAK funding requests through online facilities. 1 a. Increased reliability, validity and comprehensiveness of these, 78,000 schools can get fixed broadband connections, which reporting by educational institutions, ensuring submission would allow them full access to digital e-content and online services of Bantuan Operasional Sekolah (BOS) data and thereby offered by the MoEC. Another 169,000 schools can be connected accelerating disbursements; via mobile Internet. While not all of those schools would benefit b. Institutional improvement through the use of information to immediately from broadband Internet connections, the rapid rollout assess strengths and weaknesses; of fibre-optic upgrades around the country means that the number of schools connected via broadband rather than slower connections can c. Transparency in the significant investments taking place increase very rapidly over the next couple of years. to refurbish schools through the Government’s Special Allocation Funds (DAK: Dana Alokasi Khusus) by creating This leaves fewer than 5% of schools that could not get Internet access online refurbishment request tracking facilities connecting today, other than through very expensive satellite connections. schools, districts, provinces, and MoEC; and However, with the rollout of large telecommunication projects such d. Evidence-based policy-making, planning and financial as the Palapa Ring undersea cables and the ongoing roll-out of management. mobile networks in rural areas, the number of schools that cannot be 3. Increased communication and information sharing can connected to the Internet is set to reduce quite rapidly. help improve low-performing schools. Widespread ‘ICT infrastructure’ will help to strengthen MoEC management, while At the same time, developments in solar technology and low- supporting school management and monitoring to increase power devices mean that it is possible to get ICT into remote rural educational institutions’ accountability. environments, even where there is not yet electricity supplied by PLN. 4. Digital curriculum resources and New ICT devices use very much less electricity than their counterparts distance education can help low- from even a few years ago. For example, 50 capacity educators. Increasing Using ICT to support BOS and DAK funding Netbooks (a small mobile device with a lot par ticipation in professional distribution of the functionality of low-end laptops) development can be accomplished use the same amount of power as just cost effectively via ICT, and can be A key benefit of a sustained drive to connect all one standard PC from 2008. Solar power combined with access to high-quality schools to the Internet would be the support this solutions that cost in the region of $1,000 learning resources (currently being would provide to distribution of BOS and DAK to $1,800 can power all of these devices. aggregated through the Rumah funding. Specifically:  For BOS funding, Internet connections would Belajar), to improve practices in rural and low-performing schools. enable all schools to submit data required for The Telecommunications BOS funding distribution directly to a central data warehouse. This would accelerate funding Realities Thus, investing in ICT in Indonesian distribution, while also ensuring that schools The statement that 95% of schools are education can help to address challenges submit needed data that can be used to support already within immediate range of Internet of high inequality, low school capacity, decision-making and ensure accountability in access is often greeted with disbelief. lack of capacity of educators, lack of access their performance. However, the first operator, Telkomsel, to curriculum materials and learning  Requests for DAK funding could be handled via reached the 95% population coverage resources, as well as low levels of reporting an online Refurbishment Request Facility. This threshold by end of 2007. A total of of even basic school management and would enable allocation of funds to be linked 20,000 towers is reportedly what a typical financial information, ultimately preparing directly to specific needs that schools have, Indonesian mobile network requires to the ground for e-administration. based on the Minimum Standards defined in reach that coverage threshold. The current the MSS. IT would also enable schools, districts, number of base stations of Telkomsel has Other developing countries – such as provinces, and MoEC to track progress in subsequently grown to over 36,000. Brazil and Vietnam – are already making DAKimplementation more systematically, thus rapid progress in connecting all of their enhancing transparency and speeding up In its annual report of January 2010, schools to the Internet and deriving the distribution of funds. Telkom confirms population coverage in benefits that come from being able to communicate immediately with all schools, excess of 95% of the total. It also refers to sharing educational resources with them and receiving data on their the Universal Services Obligation (USO) project, in which Telkomsel performance. All of the ingredients are in place to make this happen provides coverage and basic supervised mobile payphones in every in Indonesia. village in Western Indonesia (Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Bali, NTB, and NTT). Thus, every village has a mobile signal, at least with a fixed antenna on a pole. Telkomsel provided this to all of the remaining What Will It Take to Connect all Schools in Indonesia 25,000 villages on these islands which, according to Postel, had no telephone service previously. to the Internet? Of course, there are still difficulties in rolling out connectivity in some Up to 95% of all schools in Indonesia can already be connected to areas of Indonesia, particularly in Papua. However, in those areas, the Internet using today’s telecommunications infrastructure. Of 2 Telkomsel covers most of the population (there are 1.5 million mobile Based on this, an estimated cost in 2012 for rolling out ICT users out of 2.8 million inhabitants in the Papua provinces). Maluku, infrastructure and Internet connections to the first 95% of schools Papua and a few other small islands are the main areas which lack would be as follows: some coverage, but their total accounts for far fewer than 5% of the population and of the number of schools in Indonesia). Total Cost To Procure Basic Rp. 1.2 trillion US$ 146 million Packages Thus, Java, Sumatra, Bali, NTB, NTT, most of Sulawesi, and the populated parts of Kalimantan are all covered and the blank spot Add Solar Power Solutions Rp. 377 billion US$42 million areas are mostly in Maluku and Papua, while even there most of the for 20% of schools (@ population lives in areas that are covered. Since the end of 2009, Rp. 8,900,000 per school) several more towers have been built. Total Annual Connectivity Rp. 701 billion US$79 million Cost (2012) A recent Kominfo presentation presents a map of all mobile towers Total Rp. 2.4 trillion US$267 million deployed by the end of 2009: Through the BOS funding made available to schools, it is already Figure 2. Wireless Access Infrastructure Distribution, 2009 allowed for schools to purchase computers and annual Internet subscriptions. To pay for Internet subscriptions for the 95% of schools that are already within range of existing telecommunications services would only require 3.2% of the total BOS budget for 2012 – a small fraction of the overall expenditure through BOS. This would be reasonably easy to absorb into this existing fund, provided a plan is made for those schools of under 100 students whose BOS allocations would not easily absorb this cost. Framework agreements as a procurement tool Framework agreements are preliminary agreements entered into, Blank spots are represented by white areas mostly located in the ideally over longer, multi-year periods, between a central institution Eastern Indonesia Region. and service providers that serve as an ‘umbrella’ document for an Source: Ministry of Communication and Information, 2010 individual school contract with one or more selected companies. Framework Agreements would provide a good contracting vehicle between the Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) and The �nancial implications Telecommunications Operators/Providers to facilitate procurement of connectivity at reasonable prices. They would provide a means Based on the above assumptions, it is possible to give a rough to outline the key points of the required service provision, establish indication of the hardware and connectivity cost for the first 95% quality standards with the value for money for bulk purchasing, and a of schools to get a basic ICT hardware package and annual Internet tool to initiate a ‘mini competition’ among these Operators to provide subscription. To project the cost, it is necessary to make a few better and wider scope of services for schools across Indonesian assumptions, which are as follows: provinces. 1. Approximately 30% of schools will already have functional ICT equipment (which we estimate according to data from Pustekkom Both the MoEC and individual schools will benefit from such an and from the World Bank Independent Monitoring Survey). agreement. The MoEC will be able to leverage the number schools’ 2. Approximately 20% of schools will require a solar power solution. access to connectivity in a more speedy way, in addition to the existing Jardiknas/SchoolNet central procurement. A Framework 3. Schools will require the following initial package to derive the Agreement reduces the transaction cost and time to purchase benefits outlined in this document: connectivity through a centralized contract. Schools can work within a. A modem and installation; the negotiated terms and conditions agreed in the beginning of the b. Two netbooks, one for administrative use and one for teacher process to use BOS funds to buy quality connectivity and gain direct Internet access; access to better after-sales service. This would enable School Net/ c. A printer; Jardiknas to be targeted specifically to under-resourced schools with fewer than 100 students as mentioned in the above section, with other d. USB Flash drives for all teachers to enable them to store schools procuring connectivity through a Framework Agreement. content. 3 Below is one suggested outline of how a Framework Agreement could be harnessed for this purpose: Figure 2. Possible Framework Agreement Implementation Process Suggested process of schools connectivity  MoEC’s review of telcom service purchase through mapping Framework Agreement  Statement of Requirements from 1. Framework Agreement MoEC and offers to telcom operators  Expression of interest from telcom operators, Agreed Terms and Conditions between MoEC and telcom operators in the Framework agreement 2. Socialization Teachers prepared fun powerpoint assessment game. Sidoarjo, East Java. to Schools through BOS Photo by Petra W. Bodrogini. mechanism  Individual school need identification, 3. Individual required service review Schools  Individual school connectivity Purchase of purchase using BOS fund Connectivity Recommendations Based on the above, the following recommendations are offered for consideration: 1. Enter into Framework agreement with Telecommunications Operators/Providers to enable schools to purchase annual Internet subscriptions using BOS funding and assuring Internet safety. 2. Focus Jardiknas/SchoolNet connectivity rollout on those schools that cannot afford connectivity with their current BOS funding allocations. 3. Work systematically through the e-services requirements to manage school data submission, particularly for the BOS, and DAK funding request through online facilities. 4. Support aggregation of all current educational content into a single Rumah Belajar, as is currently being implemented by Pustekkom. 5. Commence a sustained advocacy drive to encourage schools to get connected in order to enable access to the BOS/DAK facilities and to the Rumah Belajar. Preparation of this document received partial funding from the Government of the Netherlands under the supervision of the World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government of Indonesia or the Government of the Netherlands. For more information, please contact Mae Chu Chang, mchang@worldbank.org or Sheila Town, stown@worldbank.org. Human Development Sector, World Bank Office Jakarta Indonesia Stock Exchange Building, Tower 2, 12th Floor Jl. Jenderal Sudirman Kav. 52 – 53 Phone: (021) 5299 3000, Fax: (021) 5299 3111