On 17 October 2023, Mr Putra Asga Elevri as the Director of Teacher for Second Secondary Education and Special Education with his team from the Directorate General of Teacher and Education Personnel visited SEAQIS office in Bandung. Mr Asga and his team initiated this meeting as a form of follow-up discussion with SEAQIS team after the Governing Board Meeting in September 2023.
Dr Indrawati (Director of SEAQIS) expressed her gratitude because of this first visit from Mr Asga as the Indonesian Governing Board Member with the team from the ministry. Mr Asga realised that SEAQIS had enormous potential to enhance science education throughout Southeast Asia, specifically Indonesia, and could be optimised by conducting in-depth collaboration with the ministry.
Furthermore, one of the biology teachers from SMAN 1 Batujajar namely Mr Deni was invited to attend the meeting in order to share his best practices in teaching Biology based on P5 (Proyek Penguatan Profil Pelajar Pancasila) and technology. Meanwhile, Ms Ida Widyawati from SMPN 12 Bandung and Mr Asep Suryanto from SMAN 2 Bandung shared how they applied the Kurikulum Merdeka at their respective schools on 18 October 2023, the second day of this meeting.
Through this meeting, Mr Asga and the team concurred to synchronise the Kurikulum Merdeka with science programmes developed by SEAQIS as the only centre in Indonesia focusing on improving the quality of teachers and education personnel. Several SEAQIS programmes that can support the Merdeka Belajar programme are STEM learning, Climate Change Education, as well as P5.
“We have to show up with our products, then we will be seen,” stated Mr Asga. He also emphasised that the impact of teacher training programmes should be seen not only from the teachers’ perspectives but also the students.
This special visit would be lasted for three days until 19 October 2023 in Bandung. Hopefully, this will be one of the steps in developing a better future for science education in Indonesia as well as in Southeast Asia.
Writer: Ayu Intan H.
