Indonesia’s education is about to enter a new scale. Boediono, Indonesia’s Vice President has just introduced a new way of studying, which is called the online learning, at the Ministry of Education and Culture last Wednesday (15/10). Six universities, which are the University of Indonesia, Bandung Institute of Technology, Sepuluh November Institute of Technology, Gadjah Mada University, STMIK AMIKOM Yogyakarta, and Bina Nusantara University, have been selected as the first ones to implement this fresh method.

As being reported by Antara, Boediono was really excited to introduce this program, which enables students and lecturers having their learning activities online. The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) makes it possible. The technology also supports government managing the Education Primary Data (EPD), which was also introduced at the same event.

The EPD is a concept of relational and longitudinal education data management, which aims to make the education planning programs become more effective and efficient. The concept is expected to make the education plans organizing, monitoring, and evaluation in Indonesia much easier. The lecturers’ identity may also be easily tracked and verified through the concept.

“This online learning aims to enhance Indonesians’ competitiveness, as they can learn practically anytime, anywhere,” Boediono told Antara (15/10”.

The aforementioned six universities are allowed to hold online learning sessions in accordance to both national education standard and international e-learning standard.

Previously, Onno Widodo Purbo, one of Indonesia’s prominent education practitioners, has already introduced his own online learning concept. He designed the Cyberlearning.web.id, where thousands of his students learn online for free.

In response to this trend of online learning, Muhammad Nuh, the Minister of Education and Culture, stated that the learning method may be a nice alternative for people to get cheap and easy to access education. It may also cover more people in more areas in Indonesia.

To support this program, it is wise for the government to establish proper infrastructure as well as provide internet access equally in all areas in Indonesia. This is fundamental, as the more people get connected to internet, the more opportunities they will get.

[Header illustration: Shutterstock]