A number of leaders of Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) in Indonesia will reportedly stay in the United States for two weeks. They are scheduled to visit some 11 schools in the country.
Their visit is part of the East-West Center program and is designed to boost mutual understanding between the US and Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country.
The program "Partnership for Schools Leading Change" (P4S) has sent some 45 teachers from some 31 pesantren throughout the country to visit schools across the US.
Some 23 schools in the US participating in the program were Berkeley, California; Hilo, Hawaii; Eugene, Oregon; Hamilton, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Attleboro, Massachusetts; Bloomfield, Connecticut; Scarsdale, New York; Fayetteville, North Carolina; and Tampa, Florida.
The program is a U.S. professional exchange open to administrators and teacher-leaders of pesantren, or boarding schools, administered under the auspices of the Government of Indonesia's Department of Religious Affairs, that focus on teaching Islamic values and on providing basic education to secondary schoolchildren in Indonesia. Interested individuals are encouraged to apply in teams of 2-4 per school. In all, 45 Indonesian participants from up to 15 schools will be selected for the program.
The goal of P4S is to strengthen U.S.-Indonesian ties by promoting mutual understanding, joint learning, and cross-cultural dialogue between Indonesians and Americans at the grassroots level.
As such, the program aims to build professional, institutional, and personal relationships between Indonesian and U.S. school administrators and teacher-leaders as they work together to meet the shared challenges of educating today's youth for fulfilled life and responsible citizenship in the fast changing, interdependent world of the 21st century.
Indonesian participants will travel to the United States from October 14 through November 6, 2008. In the United States, they will spend five days at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, attending seminar sessions and working with a smaller group of educators from U.S. schools that will be hosting the Indonesians.
Then, accompanied by their American host teachers, Indonesians will travel in small groups to 15 host school sites in different parts of the United States. They will spend 14 days on their host school visit during which time they will live with American host families.
They will return to the East-West Center for three days of debriefing and follow-up project planning. Indonesian participants will be required to attend a two and a half day orientation session in Jakarta prior to their U.S. travel.
Funding support for the P4S program is provided by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State.
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