The Government of Indonesia has launched its Partnership Compact, a significant milestone in efforts to transform the country’s education system. Developed in collaboration with a broad coalition of national and international partners, the compact leverages the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) model to mobilize and align resources in support of Indonesia’s priority education reforms.
Addressing educational challenges in Indonesia
While Indonesia has made commendable progress toward increasing enrollments and achieving gender parity, low learning outcomes and educational inequality remain major challenges. The Partnership Compact aims to address these issues by supporting the country’s Merdeka Belajar (Emancipated Learning) initiative—a vehicle for creating transformational change in the education system—and aligning partners and resources behind this priority.
Improving learning quality: Key areas of focus
As a part of ongoing educational reform efforts, the Indonesian government has prioritized improving learning quality through foundational skills acquisition and character development for all Indonesian primary and secondary students. The reforms focus on four areas of change:
- Enhancing teaching and educational leadership
- Fostering inclusive, safe and resilient learning environments
- Supporting vulnerable students
- Strengthening governance and coordination.
The reforms also place strong emphasis on improving assessment systems to enhance educational quality for all students, with a focus on both national standardized tests and classroom-level assessments.
Unifying education reform efforts through strategic partnership
The Partnership Compact brings together diverse partners under a unified strategy and was developed through the concerted effort of Indonesia’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Research & Technology (MoECRT) and the Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA), in close collaboration with Mitra Pendidikan Indonesia (MPI), which serves as the local education group.
The compact has fostered greater alignment behind education reform efforts and increased support from financial, technical and operational partners.
GPE’s support in Indonesia
Indonesia has been a GPE partner since 2022 and has received initial resources from GPE, which have been crucial in supporting the consultation and preparation of the country’s Partnership Compact while supporting at the same time several capacity building initiatives.
With over 61 million students and 5 million teachers, Indonesia’s education system is the fourth largest in the world. GPE’s collaborative approach has been instrumental in strengthening the alignment of resources and expertise across various stakeholders to improve educational outcomes.
Looking ahead
The launch of the Partnership Compact represents a significant step in improving education outcomes for all Indonesian students, particularly the most vulnerable. It reaffirms of a transformative journey for Indonesia’s education system that addresses current systemic challenges and lays the foundation for a more effective, equitable, and resilient education system that can adapt to the evolving needs of learners.