Iwan Syahril leads system transformation for K-12 schools in Indonesia.
His main goal is to create and implement student-centred policies. These will improve the learning and teaching quality of fifty-three million students and more than 3.3 million teachers of the 420 thousand schools of the 552 autonomous local governments spread across 17 thousand islands.
Iwan started his professional journey as a teacher in 1995 teaching English as a Foreign Language in various cities in Indonesia. He had some experience as teacher assistant in WL McLeod Elementary School, in Vanderhoof, British Columbia, Canada, and as curriculum developer and taught global education in Scarsdale Public Schools District in the state of New York. He also taught post-graduate courses in the teacher preparation program at Michigan State University, which has been ranked as the no.1 teacher education program by US News and World Report since 1995.
Prior to becoming the core leadership team in the ministry, he was education dean at Sampoerna University, Indonesia, and a scholar in the field of teacher learning and educational policy.
He completed two doctoral programs in teacher education and educational policy at Michigan State University, and two master’s programs in secondary education and curriculum and teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University. In 2021, Iwan was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities by Michigan State University.
In the past five years, Iwan has been directing the development of key technology platforms in K-12 schools in Indonesia. These have changed the behaviour and culture of many teachers, principals, school supervisors and local governments to be more student-centred and data-driven in their decision making and budgeting.
Iwan strongly believes in the power of professional learning community (PLC) for teacher learning, and he has led the policy initiative to encourage PLCs in schools and education ecosystems throughout Indonesia. This initiative has been accelerated by technology. Currently, it is predicted that there are more than 300 thousand PLCs in Indonesian schools, and more than 125 thousand online PLCs on the teacher platform.
In the past five years, Iwan directs the development of key technology platforms in K-12 schools in Indonesia that have changed the behavior and culture of many teachers, principals, school supervisors and loval governments to be more student-centered and data-driven in their decision making and budgeting. Iwan strongly believes in the power of professional learning community (PLC) for teacher learning, and he has led the policy initiative to encourage PLCs in schools and education ecosystems throughout Indonesia, and this initiative has been accelerated by technology. Currentlly it is predicted that there are more than 300 thousand PLCs in Indonesian schools, and more than 125 thousand online PLCs on the teacher platform. Iwan believes that a user-centric technology is the game changer to address the complexities and to solve the adaptive challenges in system transformation.
I believe that a user-centric technology is the game changer to address the complexities and to solve the adaptive challenges in system transformation.”