IO, Jakarta – A mastery of literacy from an early age is basic capital for the success of future generations, in realizing the target of an Intelligent and cultured nation. PT. Trakindo Utama (Trakindo), provider of CAT heavy equipment solution, once again held a workshop and exhibition of “Best Teacher Learning Practices” (PPGT) on this occasion themed “Building the Nation’s Character by Mastery of Literacy”. This event, attended by 40 state elementary school teachers from various regions in Indonesia, all of whom had been assisted by Trakindo and education practitioners, aims to support the School Literacy Movement which began in 2016.
Bari Hamami, President Director of PT. Trakindo Utama, said that programs such as nation character-building with Trakindo, as well as workshops and PPGT activities, are expected to be triggers for teachers in building the character of their students. Trakindo believes that the implementation of character building-based education from an early age will become a strong foundation for future generations. “if they have a good character when they’re still in elementary school, then it will stay that way. We hope what we do will be the trigger that drives schools to keep developing and improving, to yield positive results for the community, to contribute to national development,” Bari explained.
The workshop and PPGT event are an opportunity to exhibit good practices in the implementation of teacher and educator capacity from 40 State elementary schools which followed the series of ‘Build the Nation’s Character with Trakindo’ events from 2016-2019. Various activities were carried out, like Competition & Exhibition of Literacy Work, a talk show themed “Good Practices Sharing”, a Program and Partnership in Building National Character with Trakindo,” to workshops of independent follow-up planning for the school literacy movement.
Trakindo expects that the results from this program will continue to benefit participants, with a positive effect – not only those 40 state elementary schools assisted by Trakindo, but also far-reaching in impact on other schools all across the country. Embarking on those hopes, Trakindo presented the “Manual for Program Replication: Building National Character with Trakindo” to the Ministry of Culture and Education. This book is a crystallization of many good practices carried out, as a reference for everyone involved in the world of education. Through this book, they hoped that it would continue to support government programs in the implementation of sustainable national character-building.
Putra Asga, M.Si, Section Head for Teacher’s Family Education Welfare (PKK) of the Directory General GTK Ministry of Culture and Education, explained that Trakindo’s contribution has been to run in line with the ideals of the Ministry of Culture and Education, in terms of strengthening character education in elementary schools. “We really appreciate the program implemented by Trakindo, as it has been able to strengthen government programs related to character building-based education in Indonesia. Hopefully, programs like this can continue to be implemented in order to provide positive benefits for education in Indonesia,” Putra said.
The implementation of National Character Building with Trakindo itself is a form of support from Trakindo in order to make the Strategic Planning (Renstra) of Ministry of Culture and Education 2015-2019 a success for the improvement of the quality and relevance of education oriented to character-building.
Committed to give support in the improvement of teacher competency and professionalism, in order to develop and improve national education with character, Trakindo started up partnerships with Assisted-State Elementary Schools 10 years ago. Till this day, the program has succeeded to assist more than 250 schools, consisting of 40 assisted-state elementary schools and more than 200 impacted schools. This program also succeeded in reaching more than 1000 teachers and 15,000 students for development of project-based learning, inquiry, and school literacy. From the employees’ side, it is recorded that more than 4,500 employees had participated actively in Trakindo Volunteer Teacher activities, with time devoted exceeding 35,000 hours.