The AED2,387,775 (US$650,000) programme, titled “Improving Quality of Education through Training of School Leaders in Indonesia” is set to create a more impactful administration and elevate both teacher and student performance, by developing solutions that can be implemented at scale in the whole country.

The programme which was developed to raise the level of engagement of school leadership through school management training, is set to benefit over 10,000 students and 250 teachers by training 75 school leaders in organisational and instructional leadership. The programme, which is conducted in partnership with Global School Leaders, includes the creation of the Indonesian Leadership Academy, INSPIRASI, that will follow a two-stage process: the first year encompasses the development and contextualisation of the programme, while in the second year principals and vice-principals from 25 selected schools will be trained, along with additional schools to be identified for the coming years.

Speaking about the significance of the new programme, Abdulla Ahmed Alshehhi, Chief Operating Officer at Dubai Cares, said, “Indonesia has seen incredible gains in education since the 1980s, including record-high levels of school enrolment; however, there is room for improvement when it comes to quality of education. Through this new programme, we are aiming for solutions that can be implemented at scale in Indonesia while improving outcomes for underperforming schools in underserved communities. We are eager to make a positive and lasting impact on the students’ learning throughout Indonesia, which has the fourth largest education system in the world.”

Sameer Sampat, Co-founder, Global School Leaders, said, “We believe that excellent schools begin with excellent school leaders. Through our experience in India, Malaysia, and Kenya, we have seen the importance of leadership and management practices, particularly for schools enrolling under-served students. In Indonesia, our government and programmatic partners have recognised the need to invest in strong school leadership and we are excited to work alongside them to support this initiative. We truly believe this is a humble step toward significantly improving outcomes for students and we hope that the result of this pilot, in partnership with Dubai Cares, is a model that can be adopted widely by the Indonesian education system.”

Indonesia drastically cut its poverty rate between 1999 and 2018 and doubled school enrolment since the 1980s. However, key educational challenges remain, as among 15-year-old students, 55% are “low achievers” in reading and 69% in mathematics. Furthermore, nearly 26 million Indonesians live in poverty, and another 53.5 million Indonesians are considered at risk of falling into poverty, while schools have struggled to improve the quality of education. The natural disasters of 2018 have exacerbated this challenging situation, with around 150,000 children believed to be in urgent need of assistance and quality education.