Lamongan Regency: A model for “Quality Education” excellence

The importance of moving beyond local academic standards to obtain international benchmarks

As of 2025, the Lamongan Regency, located in East Java, Indonesia, is home to 1,530 primary and secondary schools where approximately 80,000 children are pursuing their education. As the Regency Education Office, our unwavering goal is to ensure that through compulsory education, every child acquires a foundation of both strong character and academic excellence.

For a long time, the primary challenge we faced in establishing these foundational academic skills was the significant disparity in achievement across different regions and schools, driven largely by socio-economic factors. This trend was particularly pronounced in mathematics. We observed that student learning was overly reliant on rote memorization, leaving them without the necessary applied skills or logical reasoning capabilities. Furthermore, under traditional standardized testing and evaluation methods, results were treated merely as numerical scores. This not only failed to provide students with feedback useful for individual improvement but also deprived teachers of the insights needed to refine their daily curricula and instructional methods.

The international academic assessment TOFAS, provided by SPRIX, is exceptional in its ability to swiftly and objectively measure foundational computational skills and comprehension—areas that were often obscured by conventional evaluations. While data collection and analysis for foundational skills is typically an arduous task, we recognized that introducing TOFAS would allow us to assess these competencies efficiently and intensively, thereby reducing the administrative burden on our educators.

In addition, TOFAS provides analytical data that identifies the specific strengths and weaknesses of every individual. By receiving this student-centric feedback, learners can engage in more effective study habits to overcome their challenges, and teachers can tailor their instruction to match each student’s level of understanding. Moreover, one of the most highly regarded benefits of TOFAS within the Education Office is the ability to benchmark against international standards. Previously, our assessments relied on local criteria, making it difficult for students and teachers to gauge their standing objectively. Because TOFAS is an internationally standardized assessment, it allows for a global comparison of achievement. This empowers both students and educators to understand their progress objectively and clearly define the next steps required to enhance their global competitiveness.

It has been approximately one year since we introduced TOFAS. Our immediate priority is for both students and teachers to maximize the use of the data derived from these analyses in their daily learning and instruction. Specifically, we aim to elevate teaching practices through data-driven optimization and to foster an environment where students take proactive, positive ownership of their learning by understanding their own proficiency.

By establishing this cycle of measurement and improvement, we expect to bridge the gap in foundational academic skills and raise the overall standard of mathematics—a long-standing challenge for our regency. In the coming years, we aim to establish Lamongan Regency as a premier model for "Quality Education," with the goal of expanding this initiative to other regions throughout Indonesia.