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oint cooperation between the Japanese and Indonesian governments to improve school standards is already having a positive and lasting impact in Indonesian schools, agreed students and teachers.

The Program for Enhancing Quality of Junior Secondary School Education (PELITA) is the latest effort by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and several Indonesian ministries to improve education in rural areas.

Local coordinator Rie Takahashi said the program’s focus is unique in its grass roots approach and operational style.

“We aim to encourage schools to improve on their own initiative. We send experts to the school to help with teacher training and to inform schools of the possible grants they can receive if they send a well designed proposal to us,” Rie said.

Ratu Inayati, administrator of state school Khaerul Huda in Serang, Banten, said that PELITA has been an enormous help in improving her school.

“All teachers at the school have now received proper IT training and the nine computers belonging to the school are now used on a rolling basis by all 140 pupils,” Ratu said during a tour of the school’s facilities outside Serang.

Ninth grader Siti Arifan eagerly told The Jakarta Post about the improvements at the school. “Teachers now take a much more personal approach whenever anybody has a problem in class,” Siti said, adding that the school library also has recently received more books.

PELITA encompasses more than 1,200 Indonesian schools and seeks to improve schools through two separate yet interconnected objectives.

First, PELITA improves teaching methods through encouragement of a structured approach to lesson planning, as well fostering collaboration and feedback between teachers to create a dynamic and constructive environment to improve teaching.

Second, PELITA supports the expansion of school capacities and improvement of facilities through participatory school-based management, which assesses the merits of school proposals. Approved ideas receive a jointly funded grant.

At MTS Darul Irfan, a Banten-based Muslim school, staff and students also appeared to be thrilled. “In the past, we had great difficulties getting many of the students to pass math- and science-based subjects,” said head teacher Sujongko.

“Through PELITA’s involvement, we have now been able to offer evening classes to many of the students who were struggling.”

Ninth graders Ihat Solihat and Nurmila both gleefully agreed that the school has made much progress. When asked what they think the biggest difference has been since the proposals started to be implemented more than a year ago, their verdict was unanimous: “Both of us have really improved in math.”

The programs are not limited to improving internal conditions within schools. Earlier this year, a PELITA official came to speak at a school meeting with parents, students and Darul Irfan staff to raise awareness.

“Helping parents understand the importance of education, not only for their children, but also for the wider community, has been an immensely effective way to keep drop out rates low,” Sujongko said.

Other teachers such as Yuliwati said that they were concerned about what might happen after 2010 due to the lack of an agreement being reached between JICA and the Religious Affairs Ministry, which supervises Muslim schools such as Darul Irfan.

“The funds that we have received for our proposals have really helped us improve the school so much. It would be a great shame if we were not able to keep these efforts going,” Yuliwati said.

“My only hope is that the support we get will grow even larger — small things can make such a big difference here.”