Internet Access Helps Schools in East Flores Implement Digital Learning
Internet access is beginning to transform educational activities in remote areas, including in East Flores Regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). Internet connectivity not only opens up access to information for students and teachers, but also helps schools carry out learning, administration, and various digital-based assessments.
The head of SMAN 1 Titehena, Konrardus Kudarto, said his school’s situation changed after receiving internet infrastructure support from the Telecommunications and Information Accessibility Agency (BAKTI) of the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Komdigi). Previously, the school was located in a blank spot area, so internet access was very limited.
“In 2016, when I became the head of the school, the school was right in the village where the school stands, and that was a blank spot, there was no signal. There was signal only in certain places where 4G could appear, sometimes up in a tree. But almost everywhere else it was E (Edge),” Konrardus said at BAKTI Media Connect 2026 on Wednesday (12/8/2026).
To meet the school’s communication needs at that time, Konrardus relied on a modem and data packages. The situation began to change in 2017 when the school received Wi-Fi equipment assistance from BAKTI Kominfo through iForte.
“In 2017, the school received Wi-Fi equipment assistance from BAKTI Kominfo, iForte. That has already helped us greatly on the ground,” Konrardus said.
According to Konrardus, the need for connectivity is now growing along with the use of digital technology in educational activities. The internet is used not only for the learning process, but also for administration and the implementation of student assessments.
“There are many things. Learning also has to be digital-based, administrative reporting is also digital, and the greatest need is for assessments,” Konrardus said.
These needs have made increasing network capacity one of the school’s requirements. Konrardus hopes that the existing infrastructure can be strengthened so that its use is more optimal, especially to support the implementation of assessments.
A number of educational assessments require an internet connection, including the Computer-Based National Assessment (ANBK), the Academic Competency Test (TKA), and the Teacher Competency Test.
“A message for BAKTI: perhaps it can be strengthened so that we can use it to the maximum, optimising the equipment for assessment needs. Especially assessments at school,” he said.
BAKTI President Director Fadhilah Mathar said the need to improve connectivity quality is also feedback that BAKTI has received from local governments and service recipient communities. According to him, this need is a consequence of the increasing number of activities using the internet once connectivity is available.
“We are used to being scolded in the literal sense, but we consider that as something we have to accept because of the public’s longing for the presence of a signal,” Fadhilah said.
Fadhilah said the presence of connectivity can actually increase the need for network capacity. Once internet access is available, people begin using various applications and digital services, so the need for the network also increases.
To date, BAKTI has built internet access at more than 31,000 locations. Around 68 percent of these are in the education sector, while 5.89 percent are in the health sector to support e-government.
Around 19.9 percent of other locations cover government offices and various public facilities, such as traditional markets, places of worship, defence and security posts, business locations and business services, as well as public transport.
“Development at BAKTI is like the legs of a table tennis table. There are four legs. First is community sustainability because this will help adoption and inclusion. Second, service quality. Third, encouraging the scalability of MSMEs. Fourth, and no less important, is industry sustainability. The government must not come in and end up killing commercial space,” Fadhilah said.
For this reason, BAKTI encourages collaboration between local governments, mobile operators, and other partners so that the infrastructure that has been built can develop according to community needs.
Fadhilah said connectivity development in the 3T (frontier, outermost, and least developed) regions must ultimately produce community self-reliance. According to him, the government does not want to remain in an area when the digital ecosystem there is already able to operate independently.
“Because the government’s success in the Universal Service Obligation is not how long we stay there, but how quickly we leave that location. In the sense that the community is already self-sufficient,” Fadhilah said.