Summary of publication
The Innovation for Indonesia's School Children (INOVASI) program is Australia's flagship basic education program in Indonesia that focus on supporting improvements in students' literacy and numeracy outcomes and foundational skills in primary school by working with the education ecosystem. This design update document provides information regarding the rationale, intended outcomes, implementation arrangements, as well as how the third phase of the INOVASI program will be managed by DFAT and works together with its counterparts.
The INOVASI Phase 3 program builds upon the work and lessons from previous phases in exploring local problems and solutions and generating evidence to inform government policy development and practices, and addressing gaps that exist between national policies and practices at district and school levels. This investment will continue to focus on the development of foundational skills but expanding its scope from grades one to three only, to now covering all primary grades as well as the last year of kindergarten to support effective transition from early childhood to primary education. The investment will engage with priority issues of Australia's International Development Policy, which includes an increased emphasis on gender equality, effective inclusion of children with disabilities and in responding to the climate change challenge in education.
INOVASI Phase 3 has two End of Program Outcome which are (i) by 2031, targeted national and subnational stakeholders develop and/or implement inclusive education policies and systems that support foundational skills for all primary students, including children with disabilities, and (ii) by 2031, teachers and leaders of schools and madrasah in targeted districts demonstrate inclusive practices that result in improved foundational skills for all primary students, including children with disabilities. The program will develop and implement activities at national and subnational level using five implementation strategies namely (i) strengthening of district education ecosystems, (ii) technical assistance, (iii) evidence and knowledge generation and sharing, (iv) institutional partnerships, and (v) pilots and trials. The main program strategy is the brokering, activation and strengthening of ecosystems of education stakeholders in 25 target districts (TBD) across the provinces of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), North Kalimantan (Kaltara), Maluku, East Java, and West Java. At its core, the program can be envisaged as a vehicle to trial, test, learn from and improve collective and localised ecosystemic approaches for implementing relevant education policies and reforms.