Teguh Yassi A. P. Brought Peers Networking Concept in PPI India - IEC 2015

By Vinskatania Agung A

Editor Vinskatania Agung A

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id - In facing a certain problem in their environment, academia needs to propose applicable solution as soon as possible, especially for problem related to education. Education is the closest matter to them and in Indonesia, it still has many challenges. Moreover, in several months, Indonesia will face the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Therefore, the education sector has to arrange some preparation to support human resources in the upcoming free market competition.


Regarding to that issue, Indonesian Student Association in India (PPI India) held Indonesia Essay Competition 2015. It was opened for all Indonesian students around the world from May-June with theme "Education for a Better Nation". Went through a tight selection process, ITB students who is laso a General News Manager of itb.ac.id, Teguh Yassi Akasyah Putra (Metallurgical Engineering 2012), suceeded to be the first winner of this international competition.

Highlighting Low-Skilled Labour Issue
In an essay entitled "The Idea of Peer Networking to Globalize Indonesia" true confirmed that AEC is very influential for employment in Indonesia. However, unfortunately until now Indonesia still has many workers who are categorized as a low-skilled labor.

"Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) Indonesia per August 2013 mentioned that most of Indonesian labor, approximately 52 million people, is elementary school graduated or below. It is nearly 50 percent of the total 110.8 million workers. Based on this data, we can conclude that most of the Indonesian labor is low-skilled or have low competence. Thus, we can say that Indonesia has not prepared enough to roll in the AEC system," wrote Teguh in the opening paragraph.

According to Teguh, Indonesian education sector could accept the challenge to improve the competence of Indonesian workers. But cost is still a major constraint in realizing the promise to evenly distribute education throughout Indonesia. However, to significantly improve education quality is not impossible. Thus, Teguh also suggested to utilize Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

Internet Peer Tutor (iTuSe)
"iTuse is a media for peer tutoring that utilize the sophistication of ICT to deliver educational information from peers. The word iTuSe is absorbed from the word itunes, an application by Apple Company, in order to be easily remembered by the current generation," said Teguh in the essay.

"The iTuse idea is not only for social and educational purpose, but manner of this application can also make an educative socio-economic system. The iTuSe application can be accessed when the user already has an account obtained from a registration or by purchasing an account in relatively low cost. Socio-economic and iTuse system can also be a communication media between the ASEAN students to share knowledge when AEC system has been officially implemented  so that the regional relations can be connected," added Teguh.

When asked about what inspires Teguh to make the iTuSE idea, he replied, "I'm happy being tutored, especialy by my peers. Later I found out that there are still many students who studies alone because they do not have a chance to meet their friends who could tutored  them."

Teguh also expressed his hope that his idea will come to realization and help developing education in Indonesia. "This idea is not classified as a new concept, but through this I wish Indonesia will give birth to even more innovations. I hope friends engaged in IT can apply this ideas as the fundamental learning media," he said.

 

Photos: unr.edu