Receiving an education is one of the most important things a person needs. In Indonesia, it is difficult to distribute education evenly because of its archipelago state. In order to help, the government and sometimes non-profit organizations will implement a program to increase the education distribution in a place. And for both people of Papua as well as West Papua, the government has already initiated two programs to aid their education system. The programs are called the ADEM and ADiK Programs.
What are ADEM and ADik Programs?
Both ADEM and ADik Programs are created by the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) to increase the education quality in Papua and West Papua. ADEM stands for Afirmasi Pendidikan Menengah (Secondary Education Affirmation) while ADik stands for Afirmasi Pendidikan Tinggi (Higher Education Affirmation). ADEM program focuses on children currently in Elementary School, Junior High School, and Senior High School (SD, SMP, SMA), while the ADiK program focuses on children who want to continue their education into the university/college stage.
The Programs’ Objective
According to its official website, ADEM has a goal to distribute education evenly to children all across Papua as well as West Papua. Additionally, with the program’s implementation, the children are expected to be fully prepared educationally so that they have an equal education quality to those who are in Java and Bali. Then, they will be able to compete as well as collaborate together.
For ADiK program, it has the same objectives as the ADEM program. The only difference is that ADik focuses on children who want to advance to university/college. The program also prepares the children to adjust to living in a college environment. Additionally, both programs have a common objective: to solve the problem of uneven education distribution all across Papua and increase the quality of education there.
What are Papua and West Papua’s Reactions?
When the programs were first announced, the public reaction was warm and welcomed these initiatives, especially the people of Papua and West Papua. They are very supportive of these programs and appreciate the effort the government has made. They believe that the implementation of these two programs is a step forward in advancing Papua to become a much better place. They also hope that these two programs can help the people financially and help boost the education quality in Papua, which is unfortunately really lacking in both departments.
How Do the Programs Work?
Both ADEM and ADiK Programs are being given in the form of scholarships. Students who excel academically in Elementary School, Junior High School, or Senior High School have an opportunity to be offered an ADEM scholarship. Meanwhile, students who excel academically and have just graduated from senior high school may apply for an ADiK scholarship. Students who receive scholarships from either program are selected through a very tight selection.
For the ADEM scholarship, only students ranked 1 – 10 from each school will be eligible to receive the scholarship. And even then, not everyone will get the scholarship as the government only allocates a limited number of students. No one is ever sure how the selection works, but one thing is for sure: the better you perform at school, the higher chance you will receive the scholarship. Sometimes, if you excel well enough academically, the scholarship will also locate you to school in Java or Bali so that you can have an experience learning and living there.
For the ADiK scholarship, the registration will open yearly for students to apply. When applying, one needs to prepare the documents required for application, such as an ID Card, Senior High School Report Card, etc.
The scholarship can only be received once per person; if one has received the scholarship in previous years, one is not allowed to apply for the scholarship anymore. This is to ensure that everybody, who is applying and has not obtained the scholarship yet, has the opportunity to get one.
Like the ADEM scholarship, the number of students who will get the scholarship is very limited, thanks to the allocations set by the government. Like ADEM, the selection can be very vague. So, to maximize your chance of getting the scholarship, make sure that you perform your best and excel during your high school period.
How Are the Programs Going?
Heading in to 2022, the Ministry of Education and Culture has allocated 850 students to receive the ADEM and ADiK scholarship, of which 350 are for the ADEM program and 500 are for the ADiK program. According to the local government, the government has also allocated 5 Billion IDR for the funding, which is still pretty limited, especially if compared to funds allocated for another province. Despite that, the local government will ensure that everyone involved is going to make sure that the programs will run smoothly without any obstacles and determine to find the suitable students to receive the scholarships.
The government and all the people are hopeful that the initiation of both ADEM and ADiK programs can boost education in Papua as well as West Papua. These two programs are clearly a step forward in the right direction, and hopefully, Papua can continue to grow and look forward to the emerging young seeds from there.
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