Education Technology & Access to Learning in Rural Indonesia

In the last two decades, Indonesia has made great strides towards increasing the accessibility of education. Yet, we have one of the lowest national education expenditures. To make the situation worse, the pandemic arrived, and the situation hasn't been great since.?

In this article, we will discuss what the future is like for education in Indonesia, and whether technology can play any role in it or not.

Over 530,000 schools closed amidst the pandemic, and the situation affected around 68 million students!?

The pandemic has continued until this point, and the situation is forcing for very fast and broad use of education technology to control the long-lasting adverse impacts.?

As a result, education has changed dramatically, and there's been a huge spike in 'e-learning'. In fact, Google Trends showed that searches for 'study from home' and similar keywords experienced a spike. This reflects that there has been an increased demand for online education amongst Indonesians.?

In this entire situation, there’s a silver lining: Edtech.

EdTech is the ethical practice and study of facilitating an online learning experience by managing suitable technologies and resources. In Indonesia, education has been actively involving technology since 2020.?

Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have had several EdTech startups offering study at home opportunities. In fact, there's been a sharp increase in website traffic and application downloads for the EdTech platform since Feb 2020.

Right now, we have four main EdTech sectors:

Educational Marketplace:?

EdTechs firms are offering a wide range of services and products for different users like educators, students, institutions, parents, etc. Local platforms such as Zenius, Quipper, and Ruangguru are offering excellent interactive e-learning content for all.

Online Class Platforms:?

These platforms are becoming increasingly relevant to students in Indonesia. The pandemic has spiked huge interest in online programs offered by education providers. Platforms such as G-Suite for Education, Zoom, and Microsoft for Education are so far the most popular interactive online classroom tools.

Online Educational Loan Segment:?

This segment is not as productive and big as consumer lending BUT... millions of students need financial assistance in their education. Global Business Guide (GBG) Indonesia reports that financial problems are the leading cause behind the low gross enrollment ratio for tertiary education.?

This is exactly why EdTech startups are also lending financial aid to students now. One of the most notable names in Indonesia is Pintek and Cicil. This startup has collaborated with 100+ academic institutions to provide financial aid to postgraduate education.?

Technology Innovation:?

The growing technology trend is demanding schools to always innovate. Specifically, there's been a development of ICT-based School Management Systems that facilitate the learning process in an effective and systematic manner. The SMS-ICTs are helping school leaders through resource control and community feedback.

This all sounds so great. Is everything being implemented as is??

Sadly, right now, the quality of education is lacking in Indonesia as compared to other countries around the world. About 55% of Indonesians are completely illiterate. Despite the increasing demand for online education, Indonesia is facing severe constraints due to a shortage of qualified talent. It is common to find that skills in educational resources, such as teachers in rural areas. when they have limited digital skills to use technology during regular sessions with students.

We also have poor digital infrastructure which limits connectivity in remote regions and download speeds across the country. Besides, Indonesia's underdeveloped consumer protection regulations are putting data security and privacy of students and schools at risk.?

Conclusion

The early reluctance amongst Indonesians to adopt technology has long gone. We can now rely on education technology to reduce illiteracy in our country. But for that to happen, the government needs to invest in improving the digital infrastructure and connectivity - particularly in underserved communities and remote areas.