Claudia Wang On Overcoming Education Barriers In Indonesia

Governments in Indonesia, India, and China are pushing for educational reforms to remove the systemic barriers between their students and a quality education.

Indonesia’s most recent reform, Merdeka Belajar, was piloted in 2021, and officially became the national curriculum in 2024.

Claudia Wang, Partner and Education Lead, Asia Pacific at Oliver Wyman, shared with CNA that the Merdeka Mengajar component of the curriculum — launched in 2022 to support teachers to navigate the new curriculum — has rapidly evolved into a “super-app” for educators. “After 1.5 years, Merdeka Mengajar already reached 80 percent of the grade one to (grade) 12 teachers,” said Claudia.

Claudia led a team of consultants to track the platform’s progress through surveys of over 100,000 teachers. Initial findings, published in 2023, showed a rise in classroom engagement and stronger professional ownership among teachers.

Read the full article here.