The United States Shows its Support for Indonesia’s ICT

Information Technology is the future, and IT workers are needed by every nation to help with its development in every aspect, from economy to politics, and well beyond those two. In order to fulfill such need, the United States has established a program that is specifically designed to further enhance the quality of Indonesia’s IT workers.

Sufficient knowledge about Information & Communication Technology (ICT) is a must, if someone is to excel in today’s world. Countries with skilled ICT workers produce some of the world’s most sought-after commodities, such as those related with the internet or its contents. Other examples include various computer hardware, software, and communication devices such as your cell phone. Computers and the global internet network drive the modern money market, along with many other things in our life nowadays.

Indonesia is the fourth most populated country in the world, and that much human resource can be utilized to help our country in advancing its progress towards a better future. Unfortunately, there were too few ICT education facilities here. Our potentials are not developed the way they are supposed to be, and that ultimately makes it difficult for our workers to compete in the international levels.

The United States government recognizes these potentials and has decided to lend assistance. In the launching of a partnership between the Indonesian government and private corporations on Monday, July 26 2010 in Al-Ahliyah Junior High School, Karawang, West Java, they introduced a joint ICT education effort. Through cooperation with the Indonesian government and private partners, the United States Embassy established an independent IT laboratory. The facility will support delivery of ICT-related subjects to the students of Al-Ahliyah along with their teachers. It aims to create highly skilled and competent human resources who are able to compete with people from other countries. Similar facilities will also be established at numerous Junior High Schools throughout Indonesia.

A number of leading IT corporations took part in this project. Cisco Systems Indonesia, Hewlett-Packard Indonesia, Indosat, Intel Indonesia, Microsoft Indonesia, Oracle, and Qualcomm, worked together to create multiple sets of high-quality desktop computers along with their equally sophisticated supporting peripherals used in this lab. As the main tools, HP provides 3 sets of HP MultiSeat Computing and 3 HP LaserJet P2015 and CP3505 printers.

The HP MultiSeat Computing consists of one HP MultiSeat ms6000 Host PC that is shared among up to 10 users connected through the HP MultiSeat t100 Thin Client. This way, power usage can be pressed down to a minimal, since, basically, only one computer is needed to run the entire laboratory. Teachers can also observe what the students are doing through this main computer.

The launch of this sophisticated but affordable ICT facility for Junior High Schools was attended by the United States Ambassador for Indonesia, a representative from the Ministry of Education, and the Regent of Karawang. There were also some guards assigned to protect the ambassador, as well as members from the United States Military, who seemed to be ever vigilant in ensuring the security of their VIP.