On 30 July, at the British Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia's Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and the UK government signed a memorandum of understanding placing Chevening scholarships behind Indonesian educators. The ministry announced it on 3 August.
What was signed
The agreement pairs Chevening, the UK government's international scholarship programme, with Kemendikdasmen, and runs through the 2029–2030 academic year. Awards fund master's study at UK universities in subjects related to education. Both governments framed it as an outcome of the Indonesia–UK Strategic Partnership launched earlier this year. Dominic Jermey, British Ambassador to Indonesia and Timor-Leste, called education "one of the most important investments a country can make".
Who it is for
The awards target professionals already inside Indonesian primary and secondary education. Suharti, Secretary General at Kemendikdasmen, tied it to the ministry's stated goal of quality education for all, and set out the condition attached: scholars return to Indonesia and give at least two years of service afterwards.
Applications for the 2027–2028 academic year open on 4 August 2026 and close on 6 October 2026, at chevening.org.
Why it matters here
ISJ teaches the English National Curriculum in South Jakarta as part of The Schools Trust, a UK charity that supports British education outside the UK. Opening that education to Indonesian families matters to us: our Ki Hajar Dewantara Scholarship covers up to full tuition for pupils of exceptional promise, and is named for the founder of the Taman Siswa movement.
The Chevening partnership works one level up from that. It funds the teachers and policy leaders, not the pupils, and it requires them to come home. British education has always travelled best when it is open to local talent rather than sealed off from it, and an agreement that sends Indonesian educators to the UK on the condition that they return is that principle written into a contract.
Source: Kemendikdasmen press release No. 667/sipers/A6/VIII/2026