This program held in Bandung is just one among the steps to develop education in Indonesia, especially in senior high school level. As the first step, State Senior High School  SMAN 11 Bandung, located in suburb area, was selected  to join the School Quality Improvement Program (SQIP) (now called United School Program), an education  project focusing on  learning-teaching activities improvement, from teachers quality improvement to supporting facilities provision.

"In Bandung, we have chosen SMAN 11 Bandung. This high school meets our criteria. There are five criteria in our consideration, namely the principal’s professional profile as the main consideration; teacher competence; adequate school facilities; commitment of local government, and good school management,” said the Director of Sampoerna Foundation United School Program, Kathryn Rivai, in Bandung, recently.

SMAN 11 Bandung is not alone. In West Java, State Senior High School SMAN 3 Depok also joins the SQIP. Aside of these two schools, there are four other school in Indonesia that join the same program, namely SMAN 2 Sekayu, Palembang; SMAN 5 Bukittinggi; SMAN 4 Denpasar; and SMAN 2 Balikpapan.
 
Unique

Principle of SMAN 11 Bandung, Teddy Hidayat, said the goal of this program is to improve teachers’ quality and professionalism. "Training sessions have been carried out last May for Mathematics and English Teachers in Jakarta," he said.

Schools selected for this SQIP are of Senior High School level. Schools selected to join this program in Bandung and in other cities are not the best school in town, according to the list ranked by the local education agency. However, those schools are not at the bottom of the list either. The selection is aimed at demonstrating the quality improvement; because the community also needs to assess the school quality improvement.

"We hope after three years being adopted by Sampoerna Foundation, selected schools could overcome the current top-performing school. The most important of this program is the sustainability of the success," explained Kathryn. This program is quite unique. The implementation is a result of collaboration between regency/municipality administration and non-state institution in an effort to improve the education quality by adopting a high school.

In this cooperation, Sampoerna Foundation provides various school software, such as school management training, teachers’ training and more competitive students’ activities. Meanwhile, the hardware such as the education facilities and its maintenance will be carried out by municipal administration.

SQIP is a program of Sampoerna Foundation in an effort to pursue its commitment to improve the quality of education in Indonesia. Over the period of five years, this non-profit organization will adopt a minimum of one middle-ranking high school in each of the 33 provinces. This is aimed at giving an example on efforts to improve school quality in the province.

SQIP is focusing on teaching and learning facilities improvement, starting from teachers’ quality improvement and supporting facilities provision. By the end of the program, Sampoerna Foundation hopes that the adopted schools would possess a better foundation and education quality compared to other schools. Adopted schools are also expected to share their knowledge to other schools who wish to adopt this program.