An education program has kicked off to improve elementary and junior high school education in six regencies of West Nusa Tenggara.

The program, dubbed Inovasi, is run by Indonesia’s Education and Culture Ministry in cooperation with Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs. It will be adopted in North Lombok, Central Lombok, Sumbawa, West Sumbawa, Dompu and Bima.

All six regents signed an MoU with Governor Muhammad Zainul Majdi on Tuesday. Innovation for Indonesian School Children (Inovasi) program director Jessica Ludwig Maroof was also present at the signing ceremony.

Zainul said he was happy that his province could be part of Inovasi. “Using an approach suitable with the local context, we and the Inovasi program support teachers, principals and supervisors in becoming a team that will improve the quality of education,” he said.

He added the program would include at least 300 elementary and junior high schools in the six regencies.

Program director Jessica said Inovasi was a partnership in education between Indonesia and Australia, which aimed to improve education specifically in literacy and math.

“We use the local context for the implementation,” she said, adding that Inovasi could be applied in any place in Indonesia.

The Australian government has funded the program, which will run from 2016 to 2019, with A$48 million (US$36 million) in grants.

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