This SF United School Program is a cooperative program involving SMAN 11 Bandung, the Bandung Municipal Administration, and Sampoerna Foundation. Sampoerna Foundation will provide guidance and assistance with the administrative management of the schools, including the establishment and standardization of curriculum, the establishment and running of a library and the development of extracurricular activities for the next three years.
 
According to Kathryn Rivai, Director of the SF United School Program from Sampoerna Foundation, the implementation target for this program is to transform all high schools adopted by it into the top performing schools in their cities. The high schools selected for this program are all middle ranking schools, based on data from the from local education agencies, and are believed to have the capacity to Number 1 High Schools. The high schools adopted into this program must pass through a stringent selection process involving five strict criteria: the headmaster’s/principal’s professional profile (this is the main consideration); teacher competence; adequate school facilities; commitment of local government, and good school management.
 
This program emphasizes more that just becoming the top school in a given city, it main priority is the sustainability of the success achieved at SMAN 11 Bandung, so that it can become a model for the other high schools in Bandung. “After three years of guidance, it is expected that the principal, teachers and students at SMAN 11 Bandung will be able to share their experiences with and lead program training at other schools in Bandung, so that the other 135 high schools in Bandung will also become good performing schools, ” said Kathryn.
 
In 2006, approximately 500 Bandung high school students failed to pass the National Final Examinations, and the dropout rate for West Java remained high at 1.77%. It must be understood that this percentage represents a large number of students in the face of the fact that in Bandung high schools alone there are a total of 60,424 students. “We expect that the guidance and assistance programs carried out at SMAN 11 will help reduce the failure and dropout rates in Bandung in phases. We expect the impact of the program to expand out  from the school we have adopted, SMAN 11, to affect other schools in Bandung,” Kathryn explained further.  
 
The guidance and assistance programs carried out by the SF United School Program involve the overall improvement of the quality of the skills, ability and knowledge of principals, teachers and students. Programs specifically for students include toastmasters (a program for learning how to make speeches in the English language), student exchange programs, moral and character development, community service, book reviews, music festivals, and sports olympics. The programs for teachers and principals include financial management training, school management, English language courses, and a headmaster/principal exchange program.
 
Over the period of five years, SF United School Program will adopt a minimum of 1 high school in all of Indonesia’s 33 provinces. Up to July 2006, besides adopting SMAN 11 Bandung, SF United School Program adopted five other schools in five provinces, those being SMAN 3 Depok (West Java), SMAN 2 Sekayu (South Sulawesi), SMAN 2 Balik Papan (East Kalimantan), SMAN 5 Bukit Tinggi (West Sumatra), and SMAN 4 Denpasar (Bali).
 

About Sampoerna Foundation (SF)
 
SF is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of and access to education in Indonesia. Since 2005, SF has formulated several programs for improving the quality of education in Indonesia. One of these programs is the SF United School Program, which is meant to improve the quality of Senior High Schools throughout Indonesia. Up to July 2006, the SF United School Program had adopted six schools in Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan and Bali. In 2006, SF also launched the Sampoerna Foundation Teacher Institute dan Sampoerna School of Business and Management-ITB.

Up to now, SF has provided more that 19,700 scholarships, from the elementary school through to the graduate school level, to needy students with good academic performance. SF has 111 undergraduate and graduate alumni, as well as 4,704 high school level alumni. Through the personal and professional empowerment of its scholarship recipients, SF provides them with the opportunity to make a contribution to the development of their people.

SF also facilitates the efforts of private sector entities that support the development of national education through the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Program  by managing their CSR funds and providing access for SF scholarship recipients to internships at large companies. In Aceh, Yogyakarta, Central Java and Pangandaran, SF works with local and international partners to revamp and rebuild the education systems, which have been damaged or destroyed in disasters. For further information, please visit our website: www.sampoernafoundation.org  
 
For more information, please contact:
 
Hendri B. Satrio
Media Relations
Sampoerna Foundation
Sampoerna Strategic Square, Tower B, 3rd Floor
Jl. Jend. Sudirman Kav. 45, Jakarta 12930, Indonesia
Telp. +62-21-577 2340 ext. 7054 Fax. +62-21-577 2341
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