INOVASI visited and met directly with partners in West Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara Province, on 15 August 2022 to see first-hand the development of the INOVASI program in the area and the scale-out program funded by the local government. One of the agendas of the visit was to meet with the Regent of West Sumba, Yohanis Dade.
At the meeting, which took place at his official residence, Regent Yohanis said, “INOVASI’s efforts and support in West Sumba through strengthening the capacity of teachers by introducing formative assessments and learning that suits the needs of students greatly affect students’ literacy and numeracy learning outcomes.”
Regent Yohanis admitted that the impact was seen directly through visits to schools, discussions with teachers and also from reports from the Education, Youth and Sports Office. “This is what prompted us to issue the Instruction of West Sumba Regent Number 1 of 2022 on Learning Recovery through Mapping and Improving Literacy and Numeracy Skills of Primary School/Madrasah Ibtidaiah Learners,” he explained.
This policy, he continued, was issued as an effort to scale out good practices that have been carried out by teachers, principals, district facilitators and supervisors in INOVASI partner schools. “We are very grateful to INOVASI (for the support given so far) and hope that this support will continue,” he concluded.
After meeting the Regent, the agenda continued with a visit from INOVASI Team and the Education, Culture and Sports Office of West Sumba to SD Inpres Praigaga. During the visit, the participants had the opportunity to see the implementation of diagnostic assessments, differentiated learning, and see teachers demonstrate the use of the Kobo Collect application to input formative literacy assessment data.
Elvyantari Sabatutdung, a grade-3 teacher at SD Inpres Praigaga, explained the benefits of the assessment when demonstrating the formative assessment. “Teachers can find out the progress of each learner on a regular basis so that teachers can meet the learners’ learning needs in a sustainable manner,” she explained.