Barabai, South Kalimantan (ANTARA) - Head of HST Education Office Muhammad Anhar (third left) signs MoU with Cambridge University in Barabai, Hulu Sungai Tengah, South Kalimantan, Tuesday (February 18, 2025). (ANTARA/HO-Pemkab HST)
The District Government of Hulu Sungai Tengah, South Kalimantan, and Press and Assessment United Kingdom (UK) from Cambridge University agreed to strengthen their cooperation in implementing English-language school (SBI).
“Cambridge University delegation visited and saw the practice of SBI program applied in HST,” said Head of HST Education Office Muhammad Anhar here on Wednesday.
He acknowledged there are many positive things from applying SBI in HST by improving teachers skill and better student competence, despite various dynamics in the field.
"The challanges they face is the era of globalization and digitalization and the window to enter is international language, whereas in Asia Pacific, Indonesia is the only one has not declared English as second language," he expounded.
Read also: HST collaborates with digital companies to improve education quality
According to Anhar, if this language problem is not resolved at the basic level, human resources have the potention to be unable to compete at the bursa kerja international job market, because they are not able to speak good English yet.
A total of 55 schools in HST have implemented Cambridge English Qualification (CEQ) or SBI, including elementary and junior high school, in colaboration with Cambridge since three years ago and have committed in investing and improving the quality of human resources for the future.
The Cambridge delegation visit to HST was welcomed by the HST government officials, Forkopimda (the regency leadership communication forum) and English-language school teachers.
Head of Strategy Cambridge University Press and Assessment UK Jo Mc Gowan said this visit was a follow-up to a meeting at Cambrigge Leadership Summit 2025 sharing workshop in Jakarta on 11-12 February 2025, where on of the speakers was the Head of HST Education Office.
He saw firsthand the learning process and schools commitment in HST were so happy learning English in the classroom. It was a proud for ini Cambridge delegation to work with and invest with HST government for the future.
“English language skills of teachers in HST have been seen to improve. We hope they can compete on national and international levels,” said Gowan.
Read also: HST implements inclusive education
Read also: HST Police plant corn in production center village to support Astacita
