Teacher quality is the key element influencing student academic performance. Yet the data regarding Indonesian teacher quality portrays a gloomy picture, showing that many teachers in Indonesia are under-qualified and poorly trained. According to the report from the 2004/2005 National Education Department, 30.53% of high school teachers in Indonesia are not qualified to teach due to low level of education. Furthermore, teachers who do not have the qualifiation sometimes do not master the content of their subject matter or prosess adequate training and knowledge regarding the needs of young people and how they learn. To make matter worse, teachers receive amongst the lowest salaries in the country, so many have to find side jobs to support living. With this low pay, lack of support and limited opportunity to growprofessionally many of the younger generation consider teaching as their larst resort for employment.

Acknowledging these problems, Sampoerna Foundation seeks to realize its vision by taking an active role in encouraging and seeking broader private sector involvement for teacher training to support the programs of the Sampoerna Foundation Teacher Institute.

Sampoerna Foundation Teacher Institute is the first private teacher institute in Indonesia that delivers overseas and local best curriculum and teaching methodology for teacher training. Our goal is to improve the learning outcomes of young Indonesians. A way to achieve this is to increase the number of qualified teachers in Indonesia and at the same time, develop the teacher quality across Indonesia.

Our Objectives

• To be an agent of change to improve the quality of education in Indonesia
• To prepare the next generation of professional educators who are able to offer attention-grabbing teaching material, think outdise the box and encourage interactive teaching-learning atmosphere

Participants

A ll of our programs are designed for school teachers, principals and school administrators, from both private and state schools, who are interested in advancing their teaching and leadership skills. Teachers graduating from our classes are expected to facilitate the efforts to raise the standard of education starting from the schools where they work. This hopefully will result in a ripple effect that will motivate other teachers, principals and school administrators to join them in improving the standards of education.

In order to make the training a fruitful experience for everyone involved, it is important that each participant has:

• a strong personal motivation to participate actively
• an open mind challenge discussions
• full support from their home institution
• basic knowledge of english (for some courses)