For many people, education is a step they must take in order to achieve their dreams. But for others, education is the dream itself.
While basic education is mandatory for all Indonesians, higher education often comes with higher tuition fees, putting it out of reach for those with financial constraints. Adding to this is the pandemic, which has made families rethink their spending and priorities.
As part of its commitment to lowering operational costs for its driver-partners, leading on-demand service platform Gojek has reintroduced its Beasiswa Gojek scholarship program aimed at driver-partners’ children.
Entering its second year, the scholarship is part of the Gojek Swadaya program, which offers a range of products to support the company’s driver-partners, including special rates for vehicle maintenance, telecommunication packages and grocery subsidies.
According to internal Gojek data, the Gojek Swadaya program allows for total savings of Rp 17 billion per month on average for all of its driver-partners.
Meanwhile, a recent study by the University of Indonesia’s Institute of Demographics (LD FEB UI) found that the benefits of the Gojek Swadaya program were one of the main reasons for driver-partners continue their work with Gojek.
Gojek Head of Indonesia Region Gede Manggala explained that the Gojek Swadaya program was initiated in 2016 to support the company’s driver-partners and their families.
“We continued this consistency and seriousness through the Beasiswa Gojek program, which has now entered its second batch. Since its inception, this program was designed as a free opportunity for the children of driver-partners to pursue higher education, and this Beasiswa Gojek has also a supporting program, which is self-development courses, so that they can be highly talented individuals that can also play a role in their family’s financial situation,” he said.
The 2021 Beasiswa Gojek was open to all Gojek driver partners in Medan, Palembang, Greater Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya and Makassar. Of the thousands that registered, 14 children of Gojek driver-partners received a full six-semester scholarship at the state polytechnics in their respective provinces.
To date, Beasiswa Gojek has provided a full-ride scholarship to 24 recipients across seven cities, in collaboration with leading state polytechnics including Politeknik Negeri Jakarta, Politeknik Negeri Bandung, Politeknik Negeri Medan, Politeknik Negeri Semarang, Politeknik Elektronika Negeri Surabaya and Politeknik Negeri Ujung Pandang.
“The Beasiswa Gojek program is born from the aspirations of Gojek driver-partners, who wish to commit themselves or their children to higher education so that they are able to work in their industry of choice but are held back due to financial constraints. Because of this, we chose the Diploma 3 polytechnic scholarship for its work-oriented nature, with the hope that the recipients can be readily absorbed into the workforce.”
“The Beasiswa Gojek program indirectly prepares more polytechnic graduates to take part in the Indonesian economy.”
Gede explained that the scholarship program did not have a fixed number of recipients each year, noting that the recipients were those who had passed the rigorous selection processes of Gojek and the polytechnic of their choice.
The process itself is composed of three stages. The first stage is an assessment of the driver-partner’s qualities: performance, loyalty and honesty. Following this is an assessment of the driver-partner’s children, where they are judged based on their academic performance as well as their motivations. Finally, the driver-partner’s children must complete the entrance test at their polytechnic of choice.
Along with the full scholarship, Beasiswa Gojek also provides a learning platform to provide the recipients with self-development and soft skills training taught by Gojek employees, which ranges from CV writing to problem-solving in work environments.
A vision, a dream for everyone
For many recipients, Beasiswa Gojek is more than just a scholarship. For the children, it represents an opportunity for a brighter future and, for their parents, the hopes and dreams for their children to have a higher level of education than themselves.
Lintang Ayu Ningrum, who graduated from high school in 2020, had to set aside her dreams of pursuing higher education because of her family’s financial constraints, especially during the pandemic. Even so, she never truly gave up on her education, keeping her drive to learn while still hoping for a miracle to happen.
That miracle came in the form of a notification from the Gojek app used by her father Agus Maryan, a Gojek driver-partner based in Jakarta.
Agus said that every Gojek driver-partner received notifications on his or her app for all Gojek programs, including for the scholarship. When the 2021 Beasiswa Gojek was announced earlier this year, he immediately notified Lintang of the details, including the registration process, document submission and the written and video essays.
Throughout the process, Lintang recalled that the journey was full of suspense, as it was her first time applying for a scholarship and she had no prior experience.
“Like it or not, the experience made me get out of my comfort zone for the sake of my education, from making the video essay to studying even more intensely as the polytechnics also have their own assessment tests,” she said.
Like Lintang, Jassinta Roid Triniti also wished to continue her education, though her family’s financial situation prevented her from doing so. When Jassinta’s mother Suparti heard about Beasiswa Gojek, she insisted that her youngest daughter try for the scholarship.
“My mother told me that I should try for the scholarship, as it was my best opportunity to study at a polytechnic, so I prepared to apply,” she said.
Jassinta, who is hard of hearing and uses a hearing aid, had her doubts along the way, wondering whether someone like her would be able to study journalism. Thankfully, her mother accompanied her at every step of the process, providing emotional support and encouragement to dispel any self-doubt she had.
Cause for celebration
For Ahmad Amrii, the 2021 Beasiswa Gojek was the epitome of the saying, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”. After trying out for the 2020 Beasiswa Gojek and not making the list, he drove himself to study even harder and started his own small business to save up for tuition fees and help his parents.
Pammusureng, Amri’s father and a GoCar driver-partner based in Makassar, was the one who told him about Beasiswa Gojek. Even though Amri did not receive the scholarship in 2020, he told his son that it was merely not his time yet and to always stay positive and optimistic.
So when the results were announced and his name was on the list for Politeknik Negeri Ujung Pandang’s telecommunications engineering program, he nearly threw his phone in disbelief, immediately sharing the news with his mother, who warmly expressed her happiness that her son had secured a path to higher education.
“I felt overjoyed and proud. I nearly cried when I saw my mother so moved from the news,” he said.
Meanwhile in Jakarta, Jassinta’s efforts landed her a full ride to Politeknik Negeri Jakarta’s print and journalism study program, which she absolutely loved because of her own love for literature and writing.
Suparti, who tirelessly supported her daughter throughout the entire process, was also thankful for the opportunity given to her daughter, saying that she was pleasantly surprised to hear the news.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see my daughter pursue higher education just from being a driver,” she said.
Lintang’s scholarship to Politeknik Negeri Jakarta’s electronics program was a momentous occasion for her and her parents. So immense was their happiness and thankfulness that her father decided to hand out meals for his customers and fellow driver-partners to celebrate the occasion.
While this was intended to be a small celebration to share the family’s joy and gratitude, the act captured the hearts of Indonesian netizens after a customer shared a picture of the boxed meal on Twitter.
According to Agus, throughout the pandemic, Gojek driver-partners in Kelapa Gading, where he usually operates, have met many kind souls who often hand out free meals and slip in substantial tips during their orders.
“We driver-partners are very thankful for these people, as during times where we don’t receive many orders, there are people who unexpectedly give us food or slip in a Rp 50,000 or Rp 100,000 note. When my daughter received the scholarship, I asked my wife what we should do to celebrate, and she ended up cooking some meals, while I handed them out to customers and my colleagues,” he said.
“My wife cried when she saw how people reacted and said that the feeling of being able to give and help was indescribable. When we have been helped by good people so much in the past, it’s only right that I can give back and share with my customers and fellow driver-partners.”
Gede said that reflecting on the enthusiastic response to Beasiswa Gojek in its first two years, Gojek might consider running the program continuously as part of its annual agenda.
“We will continue to increase the quality of Beasiswa Gojek so that it can help the lives of more driver-partners and their families through their children’s education. We hope that the scholarship recipients will be committed to their education in the next three years so that they can become highly qualified graduates that can help accelerate Indonesia’s growth and progress in their own respective fields,” he concluded.
