LautBiru Project (LBP) focusses on delivering community empowerment programs that are designed particularly for women and children, and include a strong focus on education. The scope of LBP’s work includes programs that focus access to education, skills training, access to markets and technology. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many countries, including Indonesia, to implement social-distancing restrictions that have resulted in school closures. The Government then introduced distance learning methods. Unequal access to facilities and infrastructure, differences in remote-teaching abilities, the type and location of schools, as well as students’ environment at home and access to technology contribute to the distance learning process. As a result, teachers, students and parents are facing many challenges. Despite the increased adoption of distance learning in Indonesian schools, about 60 per cent of Indonesian students still do not have internet access and digital technology devices.
We have launched a new project in collaboration with Laut Biru project (LBP) to support 70 students in their transition to hybrid education. About 60 percent of students in Indonesia currently still do not have access to digital technology devices and are therefore not able to access the online element of their education. This is also the case for students in Sokong, a village on Lombok. The coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately affected communities in Lombok because the population is still recovering from an earthquake that happened in 2018 and is one of the areas impacted by unequal internet access, poor network coverage as well as destroyed school buildings, homes and other local infrastructure. LBP focusses on delivering community empowerment programs that are designed particularly for women and children and include a strong focus on education.
Our project directly supports 70 students from SDN 1 Sokong, North Lombok, Indonesia by providing educational materials such as the Indonesian Government’s Education Curriculum and attractive and interactive education tools to stimulate students. These materials have been delivered to the students in a backpack. LBP will engage local staff to carry out the monitoring and evaluation on a regular basis to ensure that the project activities are being implemented in accordance with the project’s goal.