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  • Empowering Education: A Tale of Transformation in Kabanjahe

    Empowering Education: A Tale of Transformation in Kabanjahe

    Aygreat, Azura,and Keisha are fifth-grade pupils at the 040451 Public Primary School in Kabanjahe Regency, North Sumatra.

    Kabanjahe is the capital city of Karo. It is about 24 kilometers from Sinabung Volcano, which  erupted in the last several years. The regency significantly produces vegetables, potatoes, chilies, and oranges, famously known as Medan orange.

    They are enthusiastic to begin their daily learning activities because the teacher adopts a creative learning process. The daily cool temperature on the highland is also helpful to create a pleasant learning mood.

    Their homeroom teacher is Mrs. Tabitha. She always creates an interactive and creative learning environment so that the pupils never feel bored during the teaching and learning activities because their teacher always involves all of them in the activity. Beyond classroom instruction, outdoor sports and activities enhance their overall learning experience.

    The school has implemented a special program to foster a love for reading among its students. Every week, they gather for “Glowing Wednesday” to read together. Additionally, the school provides a Reading Corner to encourage independent reading, with each class having its dedicated space stocked with a variety of books. This corner is a favorite among the students. The corner is one of the most favorite places for the pupils.

    The collaborative efforts between the school and the Tanoto Foundation, through its PINTAR Program (meaning “brilliant” in Indonesian), have transformed the teaching and learning environment. With around 250,000 schools in Indonesia, improving their quality is a significant challenge. The Foundation works closely with partner schools to establish local and regional centers of excellence. It collaborates with government institutions, teacher training institutes, and associations to share best practices and offer training for principals and teachers to enhance teaching quality and school management.

    Furthermore, the Foundation’s investments extend to enhancing the physical infrastructure of partner schools, which includes the development of libraries. These efforts have yielded remarkable achievements for Kabanjahe School. In 2018, the school garnered recognition as the provincial Adiwiyata or Green School Program’s runner-up and also clinched a second runner-up award in the Education Character Strengthening program.

    Thanks to the collaboration with the Tanoto Foundation, the school has reached an increasing quality of teaching-learning activities. An attractive learning atmosphere makes pupils more enthusiastic, and the learning process becomes more effective. Besides classroom learning, the school also presented various special programs, such as the program to step up pupils’ reading habits using a collective system involving the teachers.

    Tanoto Foundation began the partnership with Karo Regency in 2018, with 24 schools as partners and 32 teachers as facilitators in the five-year-long education program.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=qg557BIAQOA%3Fsi%3Dc6_oddd1NpjFOXb3

    Ko Zin Thet

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  • 21st Century Skills: The Importance of Caring for Others

    21st Century Skills: The Importance of Caring for Others

    The ability to work alongside and get along with fellow human beings is vital in almost any personal and professional situation, which is why Caring for Others is one of the nine characteristics Tanoto Foundation, an independent family philanthropy organisation founded by Sukanto Tanoto and Tinah Bingei Tanoto in 1981, aims to nurture among future leaders in our TELADAN Program.

    Caring for others is not only about helping and putting the needs of others before our personal interests, but it is also the ability to hear, understand and recognize others’ needs and feelings.

    This skill is beneficial for others and for ourselves. The ability to understand makes it easier for us to communicate with others and creates a stronger bond with them.

    Then how can we ensure we care for others? Here are some ways that potential future leaders can follow:

    1. Be aware of your surroundings

    Look at your surroundings: you may come across some people who need your help.

    While interacting with them, try to identify their problems and needs, listen to them and try to understand their issues from their point of view. Recognizing and understanding others are among the first steps to care for others.

    2. Be part of the solution

    After spending time to observe, it’s important to come up with a solution to help others. Offer clear, accurate and effective ideas. However, please bear mind, the solution must be according to what others need, not what you think is good for them.

    3. Take actions and start contributing

    Former president of the United States Abraham Lincoln once said that actions speak louder than words. The same thing applies with Caring for Others. After finding the issues and coming up with a solution, it’s important to start contributing. The action you take will be the true meaning of Caring for Others, providing or taking care of someone, and also provides benefits to you, such as a better interaction or a deeper bond between you and the other party.

    Get to know more: http://bit.ly/CaringForOthers-YT

    Ko Zin Thet

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  • Tsunami Detector Device from Student of Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB)

    Tsunami Detector Device from Student of Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB)

    My name is Muhammad Zhafran Yudhistira, a student of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science (FMIPA) Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).

    This is the story how my team and I won The Most Outstanding Idea in the Science category at the Tanoto Student Research Award (TSRA) for our tsunami detector device.

    A tsunami is a natural disaster that can cause damage and claim a large numbers of lives, as happened in Palu and Aceh. These two incidents have certainly made an impression on the minds of many Indonesians; we feel that something should be done to reduce the impact of this disaster in the future.

    In class, we learn many things about the environment and how a phenomenon can happen: we also learn to measure a phenomenon and learn the basics of sensors. In our lectures on measurement methods, we were trained to be able to learn the early signs of natural disasters such as floods, landslides, and tsunamis so we can help the community.

    In August 2020, I heard that the Tanoto Student Research Award (TSRA) National competition was open. Tanoto Foundation is an independent family philanthropy organisation founded by Sukanto Tanoto and Tinah Bingei Tanoto in 1981. We formed a team, with me as a group leader with Mozaki and Yoma, supervised by Mr. Mikrajuddin Abdullah, our lecturer.

    In Indonesia, the tsunami detector system is still classified as an ineffective device because it cannot detect in real-time, is very expensive, and is prone to be stolen. So we were determined to make a better tsunami detector. The problem we faced was to find the right reference and data as the basis for testing. We also found a journal that contained low tide velocity data during the tsunami tragedy in Palu, Central Sulawesi.

    During the testing process, we experienced failure while trying our detection device. After experiencing three glitches, finally, our device succeeded in detecting low tide by measuring water velocity at different depths – a cheaper and more efficient method.

    This project won a competition against teams from other big universities. My team and I are grateful for being able to get a lot of guidance and learning that helped us get here.

    I learned a lot of useful lessons from this TSRA National Competition. I also found friends who had bright ideas in this competition. We will publish our work in a journal so the device can be used on a large scale to reduce the number of victims affected by future tsunamis.

    Ko Zin Thet