Jakarta, September 15th, 2020. In collaboration with the Ministry of Religious Affairs, PT XL Axiata Tbk (XL Axiata), launched the “Long-Distance Learning For Digital Madrasah”. The program is to develop the education for madrasah students. Through this program, both parties are providing facilities for internet access towards the madrasah students in order for them to be able to participate in the long distance learning process during this pandemic. The signing of a memorandum of understanding for the cooperation took place in Jakarta, Monday (14/9).
Director of Curriculum, Infrastructure, Student Affairs and Institutional (KSKK) Madrasah, the Ministry of Religious Affairs of Indonesia, Dr. H. A. Umar, MA said, "We are very grateful to XL Axiata for their concern for madrasah students throughout Indonesia. During the Covid-19 pandemic, our youth need a lot of support, especially internet connection so that they can follow through and fully participate in the long distance learning process (PJJ). Hopefully, this cooperation will be beneficial for all parties, especially our children; the madrasa students throughout Indonesia."
Dr. H. A. Umar, MA hopes that the assistance program initiated with XL Axiata can reach more than 74 thousand madrasas with 9.5 million students, both public and private madrasas throughout Indonesia. Apart from problems related to the purchasing power of students or their parents regarding data quotas, many of these madrasas are located in remote areas where it is difficult to get cellular and internet signals. For this reason, he hopes that the collaboration with XL Axiata can help overcome this problem.
Meanwhile, Chief Enterprise & SME Officer of XL Axiata, Feby Sallyanto said, “After previously working with the Ministry of Education and Cultures of Indonesia, including the Directorate General of Higher Education, we now support the Ministry of Religious Affairs as the organizer of madrasa education. We remain consistent in continuing to support the world of education in Indonesia, including madrasah education. Especially during this pandemic, the world of education, especially teachers and students, really needs internet access facilities to carry out PJJ. As cellular operators and internet service providers, we certainly cannot remain silent. We are committed to fully optimize the execution of this program so that the teaching and learning process in madrasas can proceed. We hope that all madrasa students and teachers in Indonesia have the same learning opportunities to excel in the future.”
According to Feby Sallyanto, XL Axiata will provide and distribute assistance in the form of free SIM cards to madrasa students. Each SIM card has a 30GB quota that they can use for two months. The distribution mechanism will be carried out by distributing SIM cards to madrasas throughout Indonesia.
They can use the quota to access applications commonly used by teachers to send learning materials or assignments during long distance learning (PJJ), namely Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Google Hangout, and Google Classroom. In addition, with this free quota, the madrasah students can also use it to access learning support materials in the madrasah e-learning application, the Udemy application, Ruang Guru, Zenius, and Sekolahmu. This quota is also available to access learning materials available at sharing madrasas on websites such as https://elearning.kemenag.go.id/madrasahberbagi and the Kemendikbud Learning Center (https://belajar.kemendikbud.go.id), along with the official website of Spada Indonesia (https://lmsspada.kemdikbud.go.id/) and the Ministry of Education and Culture website (https://spada.kemdikbud.go.id).
"As a form of support to the internet access assistance program for Indonesian education, XL Axiata has also prepared a 4G fast internet network in all service areas. The steps to ensure the provision of quality data networks for education are part of providing a quality network that XL Axiata strives to support and serve customers to remain productive during the pandemic even though they have to work and study from home,” Feby Sallyanto adds.
XL Axiata's telecommunication and data network is currently supported by a total of 139,000 BTS, which includes over 49,000 4G BTS. 4G services are now available in 456 cities/districts and will continue to grow along with the ongoing network development. In addition, XL Axiata also continues the fiberization program on data networks to maximize the quality of data and internet services.