Jakarta, August 28th, 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic presents new challenges for education in Indonesia. The learning system, which is usually done face-to-face, is now mostly done online through a long distance learning system. The unfamiliarity of the Indonesian people with this learning system certainly raises several concerns, such as network constraints to the extra costs that need to be spent to carry out online learning.
In order to facilitate access to learning, especially in the field of higher education, the Directorate General of Higher Education (Ditjen Dikti) of the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) has once again collaborated with telecommunications service providers, in order to provide assistance in terms of ease of online learning for lecturers and students. The Directorate General of Higher Education is now collaborating with telecommunications operator XL Axiata in terms of educational programs. The symbolic process of signing the memorandum of understanding was carried out virtually in the form of a webinar, witnessed by higher education personnel on Wednesday (26/8).
Director-General of Higher Education, Nizam stated that he was happy with the cooperation. According to him, currently, the presence of technology is now a daily basic necessity, even though many still experience problems in financing.
“The cost of this technology utilization has come to our concern, it cannot be denied that numerous phone credits are vastly purchased and drained during this pandemic. Hence, cooperation with telecommunications service providers is very much needed for the smooth running of the long-distance learning process,” said Nizam.
Nizam also revealed that this was done to meet the needs of the learning process for lecturers and students. He wants all higher education personnel to be able to get the most affordable services with the widest possible coverage.
“Our survey shows that the average data usage required for long-distance learning is 50GB per month, while the purchasing power of the community for a quota is below (IDR) 100,000, therefore it is necessary to provide friendly internet services, according to the students’ necessity and ability to purchase them,” said Nizam.
Chief Enterprise, SME Officer of XL Axiata, Feby Sallyanto said, “We have a strong commitment to take part in advancing the world of education in Indonesia together with the Directorate General of Education. This data package is specially prepared for students and teachers and is open to all universities and colleges in Indonesia that need a data package to support the online learning process. We hope that educators and students will no longer have to worry about the difficulties they face when studying online during this pandemic. Hopefully, this special education XL data package can support the communication and productivity of students and educators.”
Feby adds, through this collaboration with the Directorate General of Higher Education, XL Axiata provides digital solutions dedicated to the world of education in the form of packages with special quotas and collaboration applications during the pandemic. With this package, students and educators will get a specific quota for distance learning purposes without worrying about running out of quota due to other uses.
In addition, XL Axiata has also collaborated with various Learning Management System (LMS) providers, and partnered with other educational institutions to increase the benefits that will be received by students and educators.
Free 30GB internet package for students
In line with XL Axiata continuing its' commitment to support Long-Distance Learning (PJJ) in Indonesia and overcoming internet access-related problems faced by the citizens, XL Axiata launched a special program in the form of free internet packages for students and university students. This program is in the form of a special internet package with an AXIS SIM card, which allows students and educators to get a free data quota of 30GB which can be used to access the most frequently used applications in PJJ.
Chief Enterprise & SME Officer of XL Axiata, Feby Sallyanto said, “All of us here at XL Axiata feel that it is also part of our responsibility to help ease the burden of society by trying to support the children in keeping up and following the long distance learning (PJJ) process while face-to-face learning cannot be done, due to the ongoing occurrence of the Covid-19 pandemic. We hope that this special program can be used by the community as much as possible for PJJ needs so that the problem of internet package prices for PJJ will decrease.”
Feby adds that this special package has begun to be distributed free of charge to schools and campuses throughout Indonesia, to support the PJJ process. This package is specially provided for students and educators with the support of the wide reach of the XL Axiata data network. In collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Culture, XL Axiata feels called to provide evidence that can be used directly by students and educators in Indonesia.
This special program for students through the AXIS card provides free internet access for two months. With a total free quota of 30GB, students can use this package to access various learning support applications and PJJ. That amount of quota is divided into two packages, namely 15GB for Conference Quota which can access applications that teachers can use to send material or learning materials, and send assignments, namely Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Google Hangout, and Google Classroom.
Furthermore, another 15GB quota is the Kuota Edukasi, which can be used to access applications that provide learning support materials and platforms, such as Udemy, Ruang Guru, Zenius, and Sekolahmu. The quota can also be used to obtain study materials provided by the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Learning Center on the website https://belajar.kemendikbud.go.id and Spada Indonesia Kemendikbud at https://spada.kemdikbud.go.id or https://lmsspada.kemdikbud.go.id/.
This internet package for students also comes with a bonus game quota of 1GB per day. 6GB chat quota and m-payment for WhatsApp, LINE, OVO, GOJEK, and GRAB applications, 12,000 minutes talk to all AXIS & XL numbers, up to 4GB sureprize bonus that must be exchanged on the AXISnet application. For further information, customers can directly access https://axis.co.id/.