Building and sustaining national
ICT/education agencies:
Lessons from Indonesia
(PUSTEKKOM)
World Bank Education, Technology & Innovation:
SABER-ICT Technical Paper Series (#10)
Neil Butcher and Petra Bodrogini
2016
saber.worldbank.org
To cite this publication:
Butcher, N. & Bodrogini, P. 2016. Building and sustaining national ICT education agencies: Lessons
from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM). World Bank Education, Technology & Innovation: SABER-ICT
Technical Paper Series (#10). Washington, DC: The World Bank.
Available at: http://saber.worldbank.org
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: Continuity and Change....................................................................................................... 1
2. The Policy Challenge: Defining and Securing a New Mandate…………………………........................... 2
3. New Functions, Hybrid Structures…………................................................................................……….. 4
Radio, Television, and Film-Based Technology Development for Teaching and Learning.....,...... 4
Multimedia and Web-Based Technology Development for Teaching and Learning…………….... 5
Network/Connectivity Development............................................................................................... 6
4. Political Support ..................................................................................................................................... 9
5. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 11
Annex A: Pustekkom Timeline ................................................................................................................. 13
Annex B: Pustekkom Organograms ......................................................................................................... 15
Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................. 17
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
Acknowledgements
The World Bank Education, Technology & Innovation: SABER-ICT Technical Paper Series explores a
variety of topics and issues related to the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the
education sector.
The Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) initiative seeks to improve the global
knowledge base related to education systems analyses, assessments, diagnoses, and opportunities for
dialogue. SABER-ICT aims to improve the availability of policy-related data, information, and knowledge on
what matters most in using ICTs to improve the quality of education.
This publication series is made possible through generous support from the Government of Korea, most
notably through the Korea - World Bank Partnership Facility.
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
Executive summary
This case study explores the establishment and changing role of Pustekkom, the Centre for
Information and Communication Technology for Education, which is part of the Ministry of
Education and Culture in Indonesia. Originally established a content development house, with a
focus on audio/radio and video/film/television content, Pustekkom is currently grappling with a
requirement to change its role, given a new mandate that it has been given to plan and provide
ICT infrastructure, services, professional development and resources to schools. Thus, this case
study explores the challenges facing Pustekkom, as well as how it is responding to a common
challenge facing education systems around the world: How do well established systems and
organizations that have operated on a relatively stable set of assumptions for many years cope
with the institutional transformation that is being forced on them as growing ICT penetration
within societies challenges traditional ways of operating and disrupts entrenched power
structures in education? This exploration of a national ICT in education agency with a
transforming mandate yields some key lessons of potential relevance globally.
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
1. Introduction: Continuity and Change
Established in 1978, the mandate of Pustekkom, the Centre for Information and Communication
Technology for Education (Pusat Teknologi Informasi dan Komunikasi untuk
Pendidikan) was that of a content development house. Since its inception, Pustekkom has
played a significant role in producing educational materials for the Indonesian education system,
originally with a focus on audio/radio and video/film/television content, but more recently also
with an expanded focus on computer-based multimedia. This content development function has
been a very important one throughout the history of Pustekkom, because the formal language
of instruction in Indonesian schools, Bahasa Indonesia, is not spoken in any other countries, so
indigenous content development takes on particular importance in the country.
Like so many other educational support agencies whose existence pre-dates the relatively
recent explosive development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT),
Pustekkom has had to grapple with a changing mandate and an accompanying need to
reconfigure itself to implement this mandate effectively. The Government of Indonesia has
recognized the potential benefits of ICT in education and committed substantial financial
resources to bring ICT into schools. The National ICT Council (Detiknas) was formed in 2006,
with ICT in education (or e-Education) as a national flagship project and the Ministry of Education
and Culture (MoEC) identified as the government agency responsible for implementation. As a
consequence of this, within MoEC, Pustekkom was relatively recently appointed to plan and
provide ICT infrastructure, services, professional development and resources to schools. In
2008, Pustekkom was handed formal responsibility for the ICT and education arena in Indonesia.
This mandate was given based on Ministerial Regulation #38 of that year as an enhanced
function of its role established by MoEC in 2005.
Thus, while Pustekkom continues to run several more traditional content development activities
and maintains various broadcasting services for Indonesia, it is simultaneously undergoing a
significant process of change that reflect the growing importance of ICT in education. This
change is both exciting and daunting. On the one hand, it creates opportunities to offer
innovative and potentially transformative new educational services to the schooling systems in
Indonesia. On the other, it requires new functions and different kinds of expertise, demands a
shift in mindset from ‘content production’ to ‘e-service delivery’, and generates political
challenges as changing mandates lead to some uncertainty about where responsibility for
different functions lies within the overall structures of the MoEC. Although many of these
challenges are unique to Indonesia and Pustekkom, they do reflect a common underlying
challenge facing education systems all around the world: How do well established systems and
organizations that have operated on a relatively stable set of assumptions for many years cope
with the institutional transformation that is being forced on them as growing ICT penetration
within societies challenges traditional ways of operating and disrupts entrenched power
structures in education?
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
2. The Policy Challenge: Defining and Securing a
New Mandate
From a policy perspective, Indonesia’s commitment to greater integration of ICT into education
is clearly defined. Strategic and system-wide use of ICT in Indonesian education is considered
integral to achieving the MoEC’s overall educational objectives as outlined in the 2010-2014
MoNE Strategic Plan (Renstra): Strategy and direction of national education development policy
year 2010-2014. Use of ICT is believed to support efforts to increase and equalize access to
education, improved quality, relevance, and education competitiveness, along with
management, accountability, and public image toward education. The MoEC believes that
application of ICT for education can expand the affordability of education and strengthen
governance at the same time.
However, according to the 2010-2014 MoNE Strategic Plan, 1 ‘there still exist ICT literacy gaps
between the regions on one side and the development of the internet that also brought negative
impact on values and norms of society and provided opportunities of plagiarism and IPR
violations on the other side’. 2 Consequently, the MoEC defined the following key activities in its
current Strategic Plan:
1) The provision of ICT infrastructure and facilities and ICT-based learning content for the
strengthening and expansion of e-learning at all levels of education.
2) Development of e-management, e-reporting, and e-services to enhance the effectiveness of
governance and public service.
3) Development of knowledge management systems to facilitate the sharing of information and
knowledge among learners and educators.
4) Development of ICT-based learning resource centres in elementary and secondary
education.
5) Increasing human resource capacity to support the efficient use of ICT in the central and
local level. 3
Much of the responsibility for overseeing these activities was given to Pustekkom in 2008.
Despite this, however, there is an ongoing requirement to determine clear authority for this shift
in Pustekkom’s mandate. Activities across all five of the above broad areas can be found in
several Directorates within the MoEC. For example, the Directorate of Development for Primary
Schools was, until 2011, provision of block grants to Junior Secondary schools to purchase
computer laboratories (with a budget to distribute 15,000 such grants in 2011), and a similar,
smaller-scale initiative at primary level coordinated through the Directorate of Development of
Junior Secondary Schools. In 2012, the financial resources for these activities have
subsequently been shifted into the country’s schools rehabilitation programme. Likewise, a
recent audit conducted by Pustekkom of the MoEC web presence has identified around
numerous unique websites and online services.
Compounding this, many activities are also implemented, often without direct central
coordination, at both the provincial and district levels of the country. Indonesia has one of the
world’s most decentralized education systems, a situation magnified by the sheer size and
complexity of the country. With over ‘50 million students and 2.6 million teachers in more than
1
Chapter I of the 2010 - 2014 MoNE Strategic Plan (Renstra): “Strategy and direction of national
education development policy year 2010-2014”.
2
Chapter IV of the 2010 - 2014 MoNE Strategic Plan (Renstra): “Strategy and direction of national
education development policy year 2010-2014”.
3
ibid.
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
250,000 schools’ 4, Indonesia is the third largest education system in the Asia region and the
fourth largest in the world (behind only China, India, and the United States of America). The
scale, distribution and diversity of the Indonesian archipelago, with over 17,000 islands, poses
challenges in managing and delivering support to schools in places that are minimally served by
transportation, electricity, and communication.
Within this context, a Decentralization Law was issued, based on Indonesian Law # 22 year
1999, which grants decentralized power to 497 districts and municipalities. 5 This authorizes
districts (or kabupaten) and municipalities (or kota) to govern, to plan development programmes
according to local needs, and to decide on financial budgeting and expenditure based on
proportions determined at a national level. Within this framework of decentralization, Indonesia’s
33 provinces implement tasks in the provinces as the central government’s representatives.
Consequently, Pustekkom is required to operate across a wide-ranging and complex political
terrain, involving many different players with varying and sometimes overlapping responsibilities.
While there is great merit in the importance of securing buy-in to new initiatives, as Pustekkom
is currently required to do, the parallel reality is that innovative and often disruptive effects of
ICT in broader Indonesian society are being felt much faster than this political process is
facilitating adjustment by both Pustekkom and the wider educational system of which it is part.
This is a challenging situation to confront, not only for the Indonesian education system but
indeed globally. Key to successful integration of ICT into education for Pustekkom will be to shift
planning and implementation away from seeing ICT as an add-on to education systems that
function largely as they have for many years towards developing e-services that are driven by
ICT and that enable the education system to harness the full potential productivity and efficiency
gains offered by technology.
Given these realities, the first key challenge for Pustekkom is to secure clear political
commitment to implement its new mandate in ICT in education. As the above examples illustrate,
this is a long process requiring engagement with, and buy-in from, a wide range of stakeholders.
This challenge is compounded by Pustekkom’s historical role, as many people and organizations
associate it so strongly with these historical roles that they tend to pigeon-hole the agency as a
content developer. Unfortunately, the current Ministerial Regulation does not supply sufficient
direction on the precise role expected of Pustekkom and its relationship to other structures within
the MoEC, at national, provincial and district levels. Because of this – during 2012 – Pustekkom
will be leading a process of developing a refinement of the current Ministerial Regulation No.
38/2008 regarding ICT Management within the MoEC. The objective of this will be to establish
a clear legal mechanism for Pustekkom to pursue its expanded mandate. Hopefully, this will
provide a clear and strong policy platform from which the agency can effectively coordinate ICT
in education investments in the Indonesia.
4http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/EASTASIAPACIFICEXT/INDONESI
AEXTN/0,,contentMDK:21521167~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:226309,00.html
5http://www.depdagri.go.id/basis-data/2010/01/28/daftar-provinsi
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
3. New Functions, Hybrid Structures
The second key challenge that Pustekkom has faced is the need to restructure itself to reflect
its changing mandate. Pustekkom has reorganized itself into three key Divisions:
1. Radio, Television, and Film-Based Technology Development for Teaching and Learning;
2. Multimedia and Web-Based Technology Development for Teaching and Learning; and
3. Network/Connectivity Development.
In total, Pustekkom now has 227 staff, 70 of whom are administrative, 83 in the Radio,
Television, and Film Division, 41 in Multimedia and Web-Based Technology Development, and
33 in Network/Connectivity Development. This reorganization of Pustekkom reflects a clear
effort to discharge its new mandate: the legacy functions of the organization are all clustered
into the first division, which focuses on broadcasting, while the other two are responsible for
implementation of new responsibilities. Nevertheless, the use of the word ‘Development’ in each
title still reflects a strong tendency within Pustekkom to approach its work as a function of supply,
rather than shifting to delivery of services and facilitating use of technology. Perhaps the most
obvious example of this is that the above organizational structure offers no clear location for the
function of teacher professional development, although this has long been understood, both
globally and within Indonesia, as a key requirement for effective ICT integration.
Having noted this, it is clear that there has been a concerted effort to expand Pustekkom’s roles
in each of the above areas, which is worth exploring in more depth.
Radio, Television, and Film-Based Technology
Development for Teaching and Learning
This Division constituted the original core focus of Pustekkom, and has thereby generated a long
track record of content development in different media. To date, it has produced over 8,000
video/television titles and in excess of 1,000 audio/radio titles. For its core business of television
(TV Edukasi or TV-E), Pustekkom has two dedicated satellite channels, one for schools and one
aimed at teachers and higher education institutions. To broaden the reach of its content, it also
broadcasts content on the national channel, TVRI (Televisi Republik Indonesia) , and has
partnerships with approximately 80 local television partners that broadcast its content (although
there is also a much wider network of up to 200 community-based television stations that are
broadcasting Pustekkom content).
TV-E would ideally prefer to have its own dedicated terrestrial television channel, but a change
in the law is required to enable this (Pustekkom used to have its own dedicated channel, but this
was converted into a commercial channel in the mid-1990s). It is hoped that this legal change
might occur in 2012, thus paving the way for launch of a dedicated TV-E channel, which would
enable Pustekkom to save significantly on the fees it pays to TVRI to carry content. To broaden
its reach further, Pustekkom also plans to launch an IP TV channel in 2012. It is currently
digitizing its video archive in order to provide access to video-on-demand for its entire back
catalogue (although the focus is currently on digitizing only those materials that are still
considered educationally relevant for students in the 21st Century). Consequently, there is early
evidence that, even in this area, Pustekkom is grappling with the challenge of reinventing itself
for a digital world, in which the boundaries between broadcasting and Internet-based distribution
of content become increasingly irrelevant as these distribution platforms merge online.
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
In the area of radio, Pustekkom has been producing audio programmes since its inception in
1978. In 2009, it launched the Suara Edukasi (Education Voice Radio), the latest iteration of its
audio offering. Through this platform, radio programmes are broadcast via satellite and on an
AM radio station operating around Jakarta. This content is aimed at school students.
Pustekkom’s main challenge in this area is to measure the effect of its activities, as well as to
participate in ongoing external evaluation activities that help to refine its strategic direction. There
is currently no reliable data on how many schools have receiving equipment for the channels
(i.e. televisions/radios and, where relevant, satellite equipment), including the many schools that
have received such equipment from local governments. Although a survey is sent to schools
annually asking about use of the services, no formal evaluation has yet been completed of the
educational effectiveness of these services, and this is therefore a high priority activity for
Pustekkom in 2012. The lack of any formal evaluation activity focused on Pustekkom’s activities
illustrates strongly a mindset that is focused primarily on supply of content, rather than facilitating
its effective educational use.
Multimedia and Web-Based Technology Development for
Teaching and Learning
Indonesia has a rich and varied online landscape of educational materials, and production of
multimedia and web content is now one of Pustekkom’s core functions. Many of Pustekkom’s
materials can be found on its online portal, E-dukasi.net (http://www.e-dukasi.net). E-dukasi.net
was established in recognition of the need for more online teaching and learning materials in
local languages. Launched in August 2003, E-dukasi.net is intended to facilitate inter-school
communication and collaboration, as well as the production of varied and abundant digital
learning resources.
Overall, Pustekkom has registered some significant achievements with respect to online content,
possibly the most notable of which is that all commercial publishers selling textbooks to schools
in the country are required to make available PDF versions of their books available so that these
can be placed online and downloaded free of charge (which makes Indonesia one of the most
advanced countries in the world with respect to its efforts to harness the concept of Open
Educational Resources, or OER, to the financial and educational benefit of students). In addition,
though there is a vast and sometimes bewildering array of online content development initiatives,
which mean that there is an abundance of educational content in Bahasa Indonesia accessible
online.
However, a key problem associated with this explosion of content has been its decentralized
nature. Between them, government educational structures have proliferated around 240
websites, many of which overlap in function and carry similar kinds of content. As might be
imagined, there are also challenges with sustainability and quality assurance for many of these
sites. Consequently, a key focus for Pustekkom currently is to consolidate all of these websites
into a single, integrated web portal. This new portal has been dubbed the Rumah Belajar (House
of Learning) and will function as the official portal for e-learning of the MoEC
(http://belajar.kemdiknas.go.id). The objective of the portal is to provide learning resources,
communication, and interactive facilities for education communities and is targeted at students,
educators, and anyone who wants to learn.
There are several challenges in establishing the Rumah Belajar. Key amongst these is to review
the quality and relevant of content from the disparate existing websites. Although a formal
analysis has not been done, Pustekkom estimates that only 8% of this content will be useful and
relevant currently. Consequently, working through the websites and auditing the quality and
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
relevance of content is a major undertaking, which may take as long as three years to complete.
A final consideration in this regard is to ensure that content is suitable for download in contexts
with limited bandwidth. Thus, there is also a need to ensure that content is in sizes that are easy
to download, which Pustekkom has been seeking to do in its online content development
activities (using formats and development approaches that keep file and HTML page sizes as
small as possible). However, this problem will hopefully be less of an issue in future, as the
Indonesian telecommunications environment is expanding rapidly, thus delivering more and
faster connectivity across the country.
A next key challenge is to focus on ongoing production of new content. From this perspective,
Pustekkom is placing strong emphasis on the creation of lesson plans by teachers, an estimated
15 to 18 of which are required per semester per subject. It has produced a template that teachers
use to develop plans and has piloted this during 2011 through a series of training workshops for
teachers. As a result, teachers have already begun voluntarily producing lesson plans and
uploading these. These are uploaded without centralized quality control, the emphasis being on
quality resources being self-selected as teachers start to use the content. In the longer term, it
is anticipated that rollout of these activities will be driven by provinces working with and
developing capacity of the district offices.
While these are all important developments and the consolidation of the educational web
presence into a single Rumah Belajar is a necessary step to streamline the online experience
for teachers and students, it remains striking that the dominant focus is on supply of content and
website functionality. Significant investments have been made in producing online content, but
there is little evidence yet of any formal effort to evaluate its effectiveness in classroom practice
or to assess the extent of its take-up and use. As noted previously, the omission of a parallel
emphasis on teacher professional development is a significant gap, as this has been proven
globally to be a key requirement for effective take-up and use of online content and services.
Likewise, the provision of web templates and facilities to enable teachers to produce and upload
lesson plans reflects a belief in the idea that simply making online facilities available will translate
into their extensive use by teachers and generate vibrant online communities of practice.
Unfortunately, there is a long history of national and indeed global portals that have failed
precisely because they focused predominantly on the supply of online services and content and
inadequately (or not at all) on the conditions required to make target audiences both aware of
their existence and motivated to integrate their use into daily teaching and learning practices.
Thus, a major challenge moving forward will be to shift from simply producing content to
developing a wider range of services that raises awareness of the potential of ICT use in the
classroom, markets available services, and support teachers to develop the skills required to
harness these effectively to support education in the country.
Network/Connectivity Development
Central to its mandate to provide leadership on ICT in education, Pustekkom was given
responsibility for Jardiknas, an Indonesia-wide connectivity project which uses a private network
to provide internet access to one ICT Centre at each district office, with additional schools near
that office connected via wireless networks. Jardiknas comprises three zones, targeting schools,
education provincial and district offices, and universities respectively (although it has recently
been decided to integrate these three zones into one network). From an architectural
perspective, an important aspect of Jardiknas is the coupling of all traffic to a central point in
Jakarta, which gives greater control over what users can do and access via the Network, but
creates inefficiencies with respect to data traffic. Having initially established 4,344 nodes in 2006,
Jardiknas subsequently grew to include 33,140 nodes in 2010.
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
In 2011, however, budget cuts required Pustekkom to scale down the number of connected
schools early in the year, although financial plans were also subsequently made to supplement
the initial budgets. Partly this has been achieved through the complementary SchoolNet
programme, which is also managed by Pustekkom. This programme makes fixed broadband
(ADSL/’Speedy’) connections from PT Telkom (the incumbent telecommunications supplier in
Indonesia) available to schools free of charge. In 2011, 32,678 schools were connected via
either Jardiknas or SchoolNet. In addition, an undetermined number of schools are connected
to the Internet through their own initiative and funds.
Although the number of schools connected represents a significant achievement, Pustekkom’s
activity faces key challenges in this area. Most notable amongst these are:
1. Budget allocations for Jardiknas and SchoolNet are made annually, which means that
Pustekkom is only able to enter into one-year agreements with telecommunications
suppliers. This creates significant problems, as tender processes are often not concluded
by the time of expiry of previous contracts, leading to disruptions in connectivity supply.
2. Uncertainties about available budgets make it difficult to determine how many schools will
be able to participate in the programme in each year. In both 2011 and 2012, Pustekkom
has been required to make representations to Parliament to justify spending in this area,
and was – in 2011 – forced to drop schools from the Jardiknas Network at the beginning of
the financial year due to budget reductions.
3. In Indonesia, very strong emphasis is placed on suitability of content and services accessed
online, with the result that Jardiknas has been established as a private network, with all data
being routed through Jakarta. While the imperative to provide security to schools and
students regarding the content and services that can be accessed is a key consideration,
the resulting technical architecture for Jardiknas creates problems with latency and packet
loss, which degrade the Network’s performance significantly.
Again, these activities reflect strongly a mindset of supply rather than a focus on use, both within
and around Pustekkom. The driving objective of both Jardiknas and SchoolNet is to increase
the number of schools connected to the Internet, but there is little accompanying rationale for
why this connection is essential to the school’s operations. As the rationale for providing these
connections is weakly defined (focusing on issues such as provision of access to the Rumah
Belajar) and is limited by the number of schools that can be connected, there is little compelling
political or educational incentive for sustaining these connections, a fact reflected in the annual
budgeting processes and 2011’s budget cuts. Unfortunately, this leaves Internet access at the
margins of school behaviour, which reinforces the notion that its provision is both expensive and
hard to justify. The provision of Internet access is not yet accompanied by a clear and compelling
vision of how all schools in Indonesia will be transformed through provision of ICT infrastructure
and Internet access and how this transformation will be both educationally effective and
sustainable in the long term.
Although there are efforts to define this vision, they are largely happening around – and with
support from Pustekkom – rather than being clearly led by it. This is partly because,
understandably, the agency is anxious first to secure its political mandate clearly through re-
working of the Ministerial Regulation of 2008. However, this tentativeness does also reflect
Pustekkom’s own internal challenges as it grapples with the implications of shifting from content
supply to leading a process of systemic transformation through ICT integration. Pustekkom is
undergoing a challenging change management process, as it transforms from being essentially
a content production house to facilitating rollout of ICT and e-learning across the national
education system. Although there are overlaps in these functions, the skills and management
approaches required are significantly different, and there is still much work to be done in
developing new skills and capacity within Pustekkom to enable it to discharge its new expanded
mandate effectively.
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
This is particularly important currently, because Indonesia is well positioned to make much more
effective systemic use of ICT in education. Up to 95% of all schools in Indonesia can already be
connected to the Internet using today’s telecommunications infrastructure. Of these, 78,000
schools can get fixed broadband connections, which would allow them full access to digital e-
content and online services offered by the MoEC. Another 169,000 can be connected via mobile
Internet. While not all of those schools would benefit immediately from broadband Internet
connections, the rapid rollout of fibre-optic upgrades around the country means that the number
of schools connected via broadband rather than slower connections can increase very rapidly
over the next couple of years. This leaves fewer than 5% of schools that could not get Internet
access today, other than through very expensive satellite connections. However, with the rollout
of large telecommunication projects such as the Palapa Ring undersea cables and the ongoing
roll-out of mobile networks in rural areas, the number of schools that cannot be connected to the
Internet is set to reduce quite rapidly. At the same time, developments in solar technology and
low-power devices mean that it is possible to get ICT into remote rural environments cost-
effectively. Taking advantage of this potential affordably will, therefore, require a sea change in
Pustekkom’s current approach to delivery of Internet connections to schools.
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
4. Political Support
Pustekkom has been undertaking a significant and complex transformation as it has received a
new operational mandate. This has been further complicated by the absence of a sufficiently
clear policy defining this new mandate and by Pustekkom’s own internal challenges of defining
what this new mandate means for its daily operations and how it should prioritize activities
between its legacy functions and its new ones. However, this challenge is also reflected in a
wider challenge of needing to persuade decision-makers in Indonesia of the importance of
investing in ICT in education, a problem clearly reflected in 2011’s budget cuts to schools
connectivity initiatives. Thus, Pustekkom is placed in a difficult position of having to defend
expenditure on ICT in education, but is not yet optimally positioned in either policy or
organizational terms to fulfil its ICT coordinating function. This is complicated by the fact that
there are several stakeholders with interest and decision-making influence over education,
including the Presidential Working Unit for Development Control and Supervision, the MoEC,
District/Municipal governments, Central and Local Parliaments, and Local Education Councils.
Indonesia is a geographically vast and politically complex country. As an archipelago of over
17,000 islands, there is perhaps no other country where the challenges of delivering hardware
and broadband connectivity to all schools in the country are so great, although recent rollout of
connectivity has been sufficiently impressive to enable up to 95% of schools to access some
form of Internet connectivity, as of 2011. However, terrains are difficult to negotiate in some
provinces and distances across the entire archipelago massive. In addition, though, the country’s
political complexity has been a key driver behind the Decentralization Law, which effectively now
means that financial decision-making is spread across 497 districts.
Further complicating matters, Indonesia has placed heavy emphasis on Internet security in its
policies to date, and is particularly keen to ensure that school children are protected from harmful
online content. While this is an understandable policy position, it has manifested itself in the form
of a complex, expensive, and complicated underlying technical architecture for Jardiknas, which
– in its current form – effectively prevents implementation of strategies to connect all schools to
the MoEC, to their kabupaten, to each other, and to the Internet. Unless these technical hurdles
are overcome in a way that remains politically acceptable, there is a danger that rollout of ICT
in education will likely remain a largely supplementary and marginal activity in Indonesia, rather
than becoming a key driver of systemic change and improvement.
The above problem is also complicated by the current annual budgeting process, which makes
long-term planning for supply of connectivity to schools using central funding largely impossible
(although schools can use their own allocated finances to purchase Internet connections).
Annual budgets currently require Pustekkom to negotiate contracts with suppliers annually,
which is both time-consuming and expensive. In addition, it means that Internet services to
schools cannot be guaranteed for longer than 12 months, with the result that schools and their
district offices are unable to make long-term changes to their operations based on expectation
of reliable, sustainable Internet connections.
Creative political solutions and strong political leadership are needed to enable effective central
coordination of ICT in education within this context. While Pustekkom can provide expert
leadership in the area of ICT in education, it does require separate, higher level political support
to perform this function effectively, as the organization is ultimately a structure within the
bureaucracy of the MoEC and not a political entity – and thus subject to the normal hierarchical
decision-making structures and processes of central government systems. Pustekkom can only
effective provide leadership in ICT integration when there is strong political leadership under
which it operates. In this regard, though, Ministerial Regulations – while a useful starting point –
are not sufficient expression of political leadership. A sustained commitment to systemic
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
transformation is required, combined with long-term budget allocations to enable this
transformation to take hold across all schools in the country.
Fortunately, there is a growing political push, both within and beyond the MoEC (and of which
Pustekkom is a part), to make ICT a central component of systems implementation in education
in Indonesia. Increasingly, educational decision-makers within Indonesia understand that:
1. Use of ICT can lead to improved information management at the national, district, and
institutional levels, which will also benefit teachers and students. This would include:
a. Increased reliability, validity and comprehensiveness of reporting by educational
institutions, ensuring submission of Bantuan Operasional Sekolah (BOS) financial
data) financial data and schools’ rehabilitation monitoring and evaluation data
through Special Allocation Funds (DAK) and General Allocation Funds (DAU) –
effectively Educational Management Information – and thereby accelerating
financial disbursements and strengthening monitoring processes;
b. Institutional improvement through the use of information to assess strengths and
weaknesses and access support;
c. Transparency in the significant investments taking place to refurbish schools
through the Government’s Special Allocation Fund and by creating online
refurbishment request tracking facilities connecting schools, districts, provinces,
and MoEC; and
d. Evidence-based policy-making, planning and financial management.
2. Increased communication and information sharing can help improve school
performance. Widespread ‘ICT infrastructure’ will help to strengthen MoEC management,
while supporting school management and monitoring to increase educational institutions’
accountability.
3. Digital curriculum resources and distance education can help educators to improve
their classroom practice. Increasing participation in professional development for teachers
can be accomplished cost effectively using e-learning, and can be combined with access to
high-quality learning resources (currently being aggregated through the Rumah Belajar),
with a particular emphasis on improving practices in rural and low-performing schools.
While the above activities would include a wide range of stakeholders, Pustekkom has a
potentially significant role to play in coordinating their effective implementation.
If commitments to these kinds of systemic changes can be enshrined in a revised Ministerial
Regulation for Pustekkom and accompanied by both strong political support and appropriate
financing mechanisms, this should help the organization significantly to drive through the
necessary internal change management and professional development processes (possibly
accompanied by some further internal restructuring so that its structures reflect more clearly its
new mandate) and play a key leadership role in ICT integration in Indonesia.
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
5. Conclusion
Pustekkom is the national agency focused on ICT in education in Indonesia, with a long and
distinguished track record. It has fulfilled a critical role in producing educational resources in
various media, with strong emphasis on supplying content in Bahasa Indonesia which would
otherwise likely never have been made available to teachers and students in the country. As
technological change has occurred through the proliferation of ICT both globally and within
Indonesian society, Pustekkom has responded by expanding its mandate from broadcasting
technology to encompass multimedia and web content, while also playing a critical role in
supplying connectivity to schools in the country. In this regard, both it and Indonesia have
registered important gains in ICT in education, as well implementing some truly innovative and
unique initiatives in the field.
Nevertheless, the experience of Pustekkom as a national ICT in education agency with a
transforming mandate yields some key lessons of potential relevance globally. These are:
1. Ideally, shifts in function of key national agencies should be accompanied by immediate
changes to the legal and regulatory environment in order to ensure that these changes are
clearly understood across the entire system and that roles of central coordination have a
clear, enforceable legal basis.
2. As organizations are asked to play growing roles in coordinating ICT in education
activities, this role should be accompanied not only by clear policy commitments and
objectives (which are already in place in Indonesia at a high level), but also by long-term
political support and financial allocations to enable achievement of stated objectives.
3. Most importantly, though, underpinning the establishment – or re-deployment – of any
dedicated agency focused on ICT integration in education has to be a clear and
compelling vision of how, systemically, ICT integration will transform the operations of
education in ways that are both educationally effective and cost-efficient. If the function of
a dedicated agency is simply to ‘provide’ hardware, connectivity, and digital content to a
system that continues to operate largely as it did before the development of ICT, its impact
will ultimately always be marginal and unsustainable in the long term.
4. Linked to the above, it will be essential to ensure that there is a systematic and ongoing
approach to research, monitoring, and evaluation in order to assess what is working
effectively and what is not. As the kinds of e-services envisaged are significant
innovations, it is critical that there is a planning culture that makes provision for learning
from practice and integrating these lessons as relevant into implementation strategies.
This is essential in moving from a culture of supply to one of delivery of integrated e-
services and facilitating use of technology.
5. As might be expected, significant shifts in core function of organizations should be
accompanied by extended programmes of professional development and change
management, both within and around those organizations, in order to ensure that the
agency concerned feels confident to implement revised and expanded mandates
effectively.
Despite these challenges, the future remains an exciting and promising one. Almost all schools
in Indonesia are within reach of affordable Internet connections. If this growth in connectivity can
be harnessed systematically, it can be used by Pustekkom as a mechanism to get all schools
connected to the Internet, to each other, to district offices, and to the MoEC, so that the kinds of
functions outlined in the previous section can be implemented to transform operations across
the entire system. Thus, as technology penetration expands, political pressure to invest in ICT
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
in education mounts, and the changing role of Pustekkom is enshrined in a revised Ministerial
Regulation, the organization is poised to be at the forefront of a significant digital and educational
revolution in Indonesia.
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
Annex 1:
Pustekkom Timeline
The timeline below highlights key events and milestones in the history of Pustekkom.
1968. Two research studies supported by UNESCO were conducted. Emerson’s research,
‘Diagnosis of the present situation with identification of priorities development’ concluded that
educational radio and television programmes are an integral part of education, therefore needs
to be prioritized. Jamison stated in his paper, ‘Alternative Strategies for Primary Education in
Indonesia: A Cost Effectiveness Analysis’, that the fixed cost unit in basic education system
improvement can be implemented by means of radio programmes in enhancing teacher-student
ratio.
1973-1974. Pilot conducted to test radio broadcast programme in Central Java and
Yogyakarta, lead by BPP (Balai Pengembangan Pendidikan or Education Development
Agency) of the Department of Education and Culture and supported by UNESCO, ITB
(Bandung Institution of Technology), UPI (Indonesian Education University), and IKIP
Semarang (Semarang Teacher Training Institute).
1976. Minister of Education and Culture formed TKPK or Teknologi Komunikasi untuk
Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan/ICT for Education and Culture task force at national, provincial,
and district level: National TKPK: Jakarta, Semarang (Central Java), Yogyakarta and Surabaya
(East Java); Provincial: in 11 provinces (Irian Jaya, Maluku, South-East Sulawesi, Central
Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, East Kalimantan,
Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, and West Java); District: 9 districts in 3 provinces
(names to be completed and confirmed).
1978 (30 September). TKPK task force upgraded into Centre for Communication Technology
for Education and Culture or Pusat Teknologi Komunikasi untuk Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan
and abbreviated to Pustekkom.
1979. Pustekkom, in collaboration with TVRI (Indonesian National TV), started to develop and
produce ACI (Aku Cinta Indonesia) TV serial.
1980 (11 September). Former provincial and districts TKPK changed into Balai Produksi Media
or Media Production Centres and Sanggar Tekkom or Education Communication Technology
Workshop.
1990-1996. Pustekkom, in collaboration with TPI (Televisi Pendidikan Indonesia) or Indonesian
Education Television, produced learning materials for Junior and Senior Secondary schools
and broadcast them four hours per day at TPI.
1996 (5 February). Minister of Education and Culture opened new 7 Education Communication
Technology Workshops in Aceh, Riau, West Sumatera, Jambi, South Kalimantan, and East
Timor (East Timor workshop is no longer functioning due to the country’s independence).
2000 (24 January). Pustekkom was given a new mandate to expand the scope of work to
integrate the information component into its work. It became an Information and
Communication Technology Centre for Education and Culture. The acronym ‘Pustekkom’ is
still retained.
2004 (14 October). Television Edukasi (Educational television) broadcast via satellite
throughout the country. TV-E presently has two channels, one for learners and one for
educators.
2004-2005. Based on the Local Government Autonomy Law, all media production centres and
communication technology workshops were handed over to provincial governments and
continue working with Pustekkom based on coordination mandate. To date, Pustekkom
coordinates 32 Balai Tekkom (Technology & Communication Center) at provincial level.
2004. Pustekkom established first international cooperation for Television Edukasi with Japan
Foundation Indonesia. TV-E received 85 educational programmes (science, and math) from
NHK International to be broadcast through Japan Foundation Aid. The programmes gained
huge attention from TV-E’s audience, the audience gave feedback after seeing the programme
saber.worldbank.org 13
Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
by SMS and telephone, expressing their opinion about the programme. The programme aired
from 2004 until 2006.
2005. Ministerial Regulation # 23 (2005) issued to provide mandate to Pustekkom as one of
MoEC’s institution responsible for ICT use in education, in which Pustekkom is to report to the
Minister through the coordinative function of Secretariat General. Also that year: Pustekkom
established partnerships with Local TV to broaden the access of TV-E across Indonesia.
2006. Jardiknas rolled out to 4,344 nodes. Also that year: Pustekkom signed MOU with TVRI
(Indonesian National Television) to broaden TV Edukasi’s access through terrestrial. (MOU
was due to end in 2011, but will be renewed for an additional five years).
2007 (21 August). First issue of ‘technology’ journal (Teknodik) published. Also that year:
Pustekkom signed MOU with Goethe Institute to produce a basic German language learning
programme German Language Programme Radio D, targeting an Indonesian audience.
2007. Pustekkom started to relay International TV Programmes.
2008 (16 July). Ministerial Regulation #38 signed, giving Pustekkom overall responsibility to
develop, foster, and evaluate activities in the field of educational technology and use of ICT for
education. (26 August). Radio-edukasi launched and broadcast via satellite throughout the
country. (October). Pustekkom SchoolNet (Speedy) service initiated. Also that year:
Pustekkom handed formal responsibility for the ICT and education arena in Indonesia (based
on Ministerial Regulation #38 of year 2008). Pustekkom and Goethe Institut produce another
adaptation programme called ‘Einblicke’, focused on culture and education in Germany.
Pustekkom and the Open University do joint production supporting the students of the Open
University in their studying.
2009. Pustekkom and the Goethe Institut produced another programme, Wilkommen, based
on the book published by Goethe majoring in tourism.
2010. Jardiknas grew to include 33,140 nodes. Also that year: Ministerial Regulation #36
(2010) issued to alter Pustekkom ‘sorganizational structure. Three divisions were formally
established: (a) Radio, Television, and Film-based Learning Technology; (b) Multimedia and
web-based technology; and (c) ICT Network Development.
2011. Pustekkom initiated process of consolidating wide range of educational content that has
been produced and made available in different forms so that it can all become accessible via a
single web address.
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
Appendix 2:
Pustekkom Organograms
Figure 1 Pustekkom’s organizational structure
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
Figure 2 Pustekkom’s relationship to other key actors and stakeholders within the MoEC Organisation
Structure
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Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM)
Bibliography
Beschorner, N.; Chan, T.; Gaible, E.; Hung, W.C.; Lim, C.P.; & van Rees, J. (23 June, 2010).
Strategic Approaches to ICT in Education in Indonesia: Options for Consideration. Jakarta: The
World Bank.
MoNE. (2010). 2010 - 2014 MoNE Strategic Plan (Renstra): Strategy and direction of national
education development policy year 2010-2014. Jakarta: MoNE.
Pusat Teknologi Informasi dan Komunikasi. (2010). Duties and functions of the new structure.
Jakarta: PUSTEKKOM.
Pusat Teknologi Informasi dan Komunikasi. (2011). Pustekkom - Socialisation Material. Jakarta:
PUSTEKKOM.
saber.worldbank.org 17
World Bank Education, Technology & Innovation:
SABER-ICT Technical Paper Series
[1] SABER-ICT Framework Paper for Policy Analysis: Documenting national educational technology policies around the
world and their evolution over time (Michael Trucano)
[2] Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from international experiences (Michael Trucano
& Gavin Dykes)
[3] Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Korea (KERIS) (Youngsun Kwon & Sanghyun
Jang)
[4] Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Malaysia (Smart Schools) (Molly N.N. Lee &
Soon Seng Thah)
[5] The Role and Status of National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in Africa (Michael Foley)
[6] Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from England (Becta) (Gavin Dykes)
[7] Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Chile (Enlaces) (Eugenio Severin)
[8] Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Armenia (NaCET) (Edmond Gaible and
Anush Shahverdyan)
[9] Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Uruguay (Plan Ceibal) (Eugenio Severin)
[10] Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Indonesia (PUSTEKKOM) (Neil Butcher &
Petra Bodrogini)
[11] Evoke -- Developing Skills in Youth to Solve the World’s Most Complex Problems: The Social Innovators’ Framework
(Barbara Freeman & Robert Hawkins)
[12] Technologies in education across the Americas: The promise and the peril – and some potential ways forward
(Michael Trucano)
[13] Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Costa Rica (The Omar Dengo Foundation)
(Carla Jimenez)
[14] Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Thailand (NECTEC/Schoolnet Thailand)
(Saowaruj Rattanakhamfu)
[15] Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from the Philippines (Benjamin Vergel De Dios)
[16] Building and sustaining national ICT/education agencies: Lessons from Australia (EdNA) (Gerald White & Lesley
Parker)
[17] ICT and the Education of Refugees: A Stocktaking of Innovative Approaches in the MENA Region. Lessons of
Experience and Guiding Principles (Kent Lewis with Simon Thacker)
[18] Digital teaching and learning materials: Opportunities, options and issues (Michael Trucano)
[19] Developing Skills in Youth to Solve the World’s Most Complex Problems: Contextualization, Implementation, and
Experimental Research. Lessons from Evoke (Barbara Freeman & Robert Hawkins)
[20] Developing Skills in Youth to Solve the World’s Most Complex Problems: Applications and Sustainability. Lessons
from Evoke (Barbara Freeman & Robert Hawkins)
World Bank Education, Technology & Innovation:
SABER-ICT Technical Paper Series
@WBedutech
saber.worldbank.org
worldbank.org/education
blogs.worldbank.org/edutech
worldbank.org/en/topic/edutech
series coordinator: Michael Trucano