In last 2017, Asia Philanthropy Circle (APC) has published a report entitled 'Catalyzing Productive Livelihood: A Guide to Education Interventions with Accelerate Path to Scale and Impact’ (The Education Giving Guide). The materials in it are considered as a key project from a broad education sector in Indonesia. There are three things to be achieved from the report. First, education intervention. The fact that there are a lot of foundation work in education philanthropy sector yet their transparency cannot be ascertained. Second, to discover the empty spaces that have yet to be discovered. Third, to identify the collaboration opportunities between philanthropy foundation especially in education sector.

The Education Giving Guide which was compiled from May to December 2017 still has a lot of inadequacies. Through Philanthropy Sharing Session, the Education Giving Guide were criticized to get input and suggestion in order to create collaboration between philanthropy foundations. There were four speakers in the event, Titie Sadarini from Coca Cola Foundation, M. Abdul from Ministry of Education and Culture, Sihol Aritonang from Tanoto Foundation, and M. Syafi’ie el Bantanie from Dompet Dhuafa.

Titie Sadarini stated that Indonesia has a large population and quite good economic state but we still have one issue to tackle which is poverty. If we talk about poverty, the issue is closely related to education. There are middle school and high school in some rural areas but not all areas has school, therefore they have to migrate to urban areas to be able to access education. On the other hand, the farmer’s children who live in poverty would not be able to continue their education.

When Coca Cola Foundation conducted a survey, they found an unleashed potential. There are libraries in some rural areas but they do not make use of it. Specifically, Coca Cola Foundation works on non-formal education. Their main program is ‘Perpusru’ or ‘Perpustakaan Seru’ (Exciting Library). Their mission is to empower 20 million people through library. Until 2017, they succeed in strengthening 700 libraries in 18 provinces. The infrastructure comes from the government meanwhile Coca Cola Foundation contribute in capacity building for the library staff.

The government also agree that philanthropy foundation can contribute in advancement of education. Sikdinas Policy (Undang-Undang Sisdinas) also stated that the society and family have a huge responsibility in the advancement of education. M. Abdul informed that the Ministry of Education and Culture has released Neraca Pendidikan Daerah (NPD). Now, Neraca Pendidikan Daerah can be accessed through website. NPD is a platform in which the public can see the achievement of education sector in regional level. The paradigm is input and output. NPD is quite important because it can help a lot of stakeholders who have difficulties in finding the data.

Meanwhile, for the decision makers, NPD is a way to give solution, see a challenge, and find a way to resolve them. An estimated of 7.000 teachers will be in pension in the next three years. If the problem is not solved, then the regional areas will hire honorarium teacher who most likely have limited capacity therefore have a questionable quality.

As an example of active role of the philanthropy foundation in educational sector in Indonesia, we can see the activities of Tanoto Foundation and Dompet Dhuafa. To explain it further, Tanoto Foundation is not a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) contractor from Tanoto Group. The corporate itself has always been passionate in education sector and has been contributing to education sector since 1981. One of their program is Pelita Pendidikan, focusing on elementary level of education.

An interesting activity also has been conducted by Dompet Dhuafa. As a trusted institution of Amil Zakat, their education program has helped children from marginal community to access education through their scholarship program, Warasosial SMART Ekselensia Indonesia, which includes education development for students and teachers.

At the end of the event, all the speakers and participants agreed that collaboration between foundations is really important for the success of Indonesia’s education in the future. It has come to an agreement that the discussion will not end as a discourse only but rather continue by creating a collaboration through Education Philanthropy Cluster. Tanoto Foundation will be the lead in the collaboration itself.