Several teachers of SDN 010 Tasik Putri Puyu in Pulau Padang, Kepulauan Meranti, Riau Province arranged donation books received from Tanoto Foundation. That morning before the bell rang, the piles of books were lined up neatly on the bookshelves in the library room measuring 2 × 3 meters.

Students, who previously played in the yard, immediately stormed into the library room. In an instant, the books on the shelves had passed into the hands of the students. Some read while smiling, laughing, and pointing to each other’s book.

As a school located on one of Indonesia’s outer islands, face to face with Malaysia, Pulau Padang falls into the category of remote areas with limited facilities. At the school, the library collection comprises only a few books, not piles of books as in the libraries of urban areas.

Tanoto Foundation, which has a commitment to advance education in remote areas, takes the initiative to increase the reading interest of elementary school children in Pulau Padang, one of which is SDN 010 Tasik Putri Puyu, by donating 3,000 books to be distributed to several schools in Pulau Padang.

It was a long struggle to bring these books to Pulau Panjang, because the books had to be picked up from Sumatra Island, to be precise, from Port Pakning in Bengkalis. It took about five hours back and forth to pick up the books. None the less, the teachers of Pulau Padang collected the books with full enthusiasm. The purpose of the book donation to Pulau Panjang is to spread reading interest among the local people.

Provision of library facilities and reading books is very important, because one of the causes of low interest in reading is limitation in library facilities and book collection. In addition to the provision of reading books, Tanoto Foundation also organizes Pelita Pustaka Program, which is a library management program at the schools. This program will provide ease to the rural communities in accessing books and prompt them to have a habit of reading and love of books.

Result of this Tanoto Foundation program has currently begun to materialize. Interest in reading of Tanoto Foundation partner schools’ students is on the rise. It is now a common occurrence during their school break for the students to gather around the libraries to read collections of books donated by the Tanoto Foundation.

Pelita Pustaka program is run by Tanoto Foundation in the Provinces of Riau, Jambi and North Sumatra. To date, more than 186 library rooms have been constructed or renovated. Tanoto Foundation has donated more than 32 thousand books, and trained more than 1,800 teachers.

Almost two thirds of Indonesian students perform below the minimum levels in mathematics in the OECD PISA examinations, and 55% are below minimum levels in reading.

How to reform this enormous education system – with 50 million students it’s the fourth-largest in the world – is the subject of a new report from the Asia Philanthropy Circle, supported by Tanoto Foundation.

The report, Catalysing Productive Livelihood, is designed as a guide for philanthropists wanting to make a difference to the country’s education system.

Indonesia has made significant improvement in recent years. 97% of children aged 6-12 attend primary school, and enrolment in secondary school has jumped from 64% in 2003 to 78% in 2016.

However challenges remain. There are more than 10 million 15-24-year-olds out of work, while at the same time the country faces a shortage of 9 million skilled workers by 2030. Plugging this skills gap is vital if the country is to achieve its target of 7% annual GDP growth.

So what can be done? The report highlights four areas that hold significant potential for philanthropists to create a transformative impact:

1. Teacher quality. Research shows that a 10% higher teacher assessment score results in 1.7% higher student test scores, but the profession struggles with relatively low pay and low prestige. Training and support for teachers, such as Tanoto Foundation’s Pelita Guru Mandiri, can help alleviate these challenges.
2. School leadership and governance. Many school principals are recruited from outside the education system and need help to be brought up to speed, while engagement with school committees can be lackluster. Providing schools and principals with help and training offers tremendous potential, the report says, with students at Indonesian schools with outstanding principals performing up to 22% better than those in schools with average ones.
3. Vocational education. Indonesia faces a shortage of skilled workers, but many students shy away from vocational training, in part due to uncertainty over job opportunities and a perceived lack of prestige. Strengthening vocational training, especially by working with industry to develop curriculums, offers huge potential.
4. Earl childhood education. Indonesian children exposed to early childhood education perform 10 points better on tests than children who were not even after four years of primary school. But a lack of awareness among parents of the benefits, as well as relatively high cost, means many children do not attend. Programs such as Tanoto Foundation’s Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini, which aims to improve the quality of early childhood education centres, can help improve both quality and accessibility.

Tanoto Foundation (TF) Scholarship alumnus Bene Dion Rajagukguk is in the running for an Indonesian Film Festival (FFI) 2017 Award this Sunday.

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Bene has been nominated in the “Best Writing – Original Screenplay” category along with Joko Anwar and Ernest Prakasa for “Stip and Pencil”, a film he describes to be about four high school students of wealthy backgrounds who accidentally opens a school for poor children in a slum.

“This is my first nomination at FFI and I am very happy to receive it. I did not expect this honour, considering I have not been in the film industry for very long,” Bene says.

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Bene first received a TF scholarship during his third semester at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta in 2010, and was a TF scholar up until his eighth and final semester. The 27-year-old studied industrial engineering then, completing his degree with honours in January 2014.

“After graduating from university, I did not work in the ‘formal’ field. I worked in the creative field,” Bene explains.

To date, Bene has worked as a stand-up comedian, book writer, film and television series actor and screenwriter, and is now focusing on being a filmmaker.

The 27-year-old gives credit to TF for his success thus far, explaining that being a TF Scholarship recipient meant that he was not burdened with how to finance his education during his school days, and was therefore granted the privilege of exploring extracurricular activities outside of class – one of which was stand-up comedy.

“Tanoto Foundation also organized classes to develop our soft skills, including public speaking. The variety of activities organized by TF also allowed me to meet many people and establish networks which became beneficial later,” Bene says.

Bene expresses hope that the TF scholarships will continue to exist and expand – both in terms of quantity and quality.

“A TF scholarship is one of the most sophisticated and coveted among quality campuses in Indonesia due to the various rewards it offers,” he says.

Acknowledging that education has become much more expensive over time, Bene adds that it is certainly not fair to those who are financially disadvantaged.

“Intelligence without economic ability will not be able to bring someone out of poverty. The presence of TF could be the one that saves them,” Bene says.

“We may not guarantee if they’ll benefit the society and country in future, but as the saying goes ‘you reap what you sow’.

“Hopefully TF’s generosity will pay off,” he says.