Jakarta (Kompas: (05/11/07) At the end of August 2007, I was assigned in an advanced team ahead of the visit of National Education Minister to Myanmar. The visit is part of his role as the president of Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization or SEAMEO.

During the visit, National Education Minister also toured the Indonesian International School Yangon, an Indonesian school with students coming from various nationalities. In his address, National Education Minister expressed hopes that the Indonesian International School Yangon (IISY) could serve as a model of international school having Indonesian character.  As a former IISY principal, I fell very proud and worry at the same time. Proud because our work (me, new school principal and teachers) have been appreciated; but we are worry because the minister has put a high hopes on us. Facing the challenge voiced by National Education Minister, me and the school principal agreed that we have to work it out according to our respective capacities. The new school principal will continue the program that has been initiated and I will serve as a consultant. In this article, I want to give a brief description concerning my experience running the Indonesian school in the Junta country.

Minimum requirement

At the beginning of 2003, IISY only had 17 students from elementary school to senior high school with 8 teachers. The number of students was slightly above the minimum requirement of 15; therefore, there were concern that this school might be closed down. To find a solution, the Ambassador advised the entire embassy staff to bring their families and send their kids to this IISY, and the number of students increased to 23.
With such a small number of students and teachers I did not feel running a school, but like running a course. Such a condition also occurred in Indonesian schools in other countries. The schools existence depends on the Indonesian citizens living in those countries.

Under a program aimed at improving the image of Indonesian education in the international community, I suggested the Ambassador to implement Indonesia Plus (Indonesia + Cambridge IGCSE for O’ level / not A level yet). Consequently, students who wished to study overseas were required to take the national examination and Cambridge IGCSE. IGCSE was selected due to market demand. Most of the well-offs in Myanmar send their kids to Singapore or England. Thus, they prefer the Cambridge system to IB, VCE, or American system.  This move is aimed at improving the quality of the Indonesian school. As a result, local and foreign communities are interested to send their children to IISY.

There are many benefits with the enrolment of many foreign students. First, more foreigners are now learning Indonesian language, arts and culture. Second, students and teachers’ English language proficiency has been improving significantly because teaching and learning activities are carried out in English. Another benefit was: IISY had more students.
In response to the suggestion (then, a dream), the school had carried out many efforts with the support of the embassy, including setting up benchmarking, determining priority scale and carrying out the program in stages. The school had chosen Hebron International School (Utty, India) as its benchmark because the school was run based on the principles of humanizing human beings without exaggerated accessories. Hebron also has an outstanding academic and non academic achievement. The result of its IGCSE test of O’level and A’level each semester is always included in the world’s top ten.

The first step taken was recruiting English native speakers, working together with the Cambridge University Board through the British Council, comparative study, and carry out English training for teachers, promotion, improving school facilities according to the program demand. This step is carried out in stages by taking into account priority scale.