Thanks to the Tanoto Foundation, Indonesian schoolteachers are learning new skills to help them encourage children to be more engaged in reading and learning. Established as an ongoing project of entrepreneur Sukanto Tanoto and his wife, the Tanoto Foundation works to fill critical gaps in Indonesia’s educational and social welfare infrastructure. The foundation has funded extensive renovations of the country’s primary schools, awarded university scholarships to young men and women in need, and sponsored training sessions for teachers and principals.
After one recent experience with training materials supplied through the Tanoto Foundation, a pair of teachers decided it was time to make some creative changes in their sixth grade classroom. The foundation’s Teachers Capacity Building Program had provided instruction on how to make learning more fun, so the teachers set about rearranging their classroom to allow students to participate in new educational experiences. Using new and recycled items they had found, the students constructed creative projects that they then displayed in their classroom. In a spirit of friendly competition, they reviewed the results of each other’s work. Along with this display of artwork on the classroom’s walls, the students showed their literary creations as well.
The Tanoto Foundation had already built up a strong relationship with this particular school, in that foundation monies had supported critical renovations through the Safe Schools Program.
The United Nations and other international organizations have stressed the necessity of preparing teachers in the developing world to meet the needs of 21st century students. Teacher training remains a critical but unmet need in Indonesia and other rapidly industrializing nations. International education authorities have pointed to factors that make the problem worse. Governments often do not embrace policies that effectively recruit, hire, and train competent teachers, and societies often look upon teachers as low-skill functionaries rather than as professionals charged with the serious task of preparing young people to become citizens, leaders, and knowledge workers.
Through sustained efforts such as those of the Tanoto Foundation, Indonesia can become better equipped to fill its teacher training gap.