Twenty Smandel Students Selected for the Indonesian Talent Development Program

This program is implemented holistically, to train outstanding individuals for Indonesia's Golden Vision 2025.

On Tuesday, September 9, 2025, the National Achievement Center (Puspresnas) of the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (Kemendikdasmen) announced the Bina Talenta Indonesia (Indonesian Talent Development) program participants and accompanying teachers. Puspresnas established this strategic program to support teacher and student talent in a range of fields, including STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), coding, and artificial intelligence, in a contextual and applied manner. This program is implemented holistically, with enrichment in important disciplines such as global growth and character building, to train outstanding individuals for Indonesia's Golden Vision 2045.

Students who can register and participate in the selection process for the Indonesian Talent Development Program must be active students with a minimum ranking of participant in district/city-level events at Puspresnas and the Indonesian Talent Development Agency (BPTI) of the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, as well as competition events that have passed Puspresnas curation and take place in 2024 and 2025. Twenty pupils from State Senior High School 8 (SMANDEL) Jakarta passed the selection, including Ajeng Salma Layla Amira from class 10.

Puspresnas provides training materials for the Indonesian Talent Development Program, which are delivered by speakers from partner universities. Participants who pass the selection can choose between two training areas: STEM and Character Training, which introduces science, technology, engineering, and mathematics concepts through an interdisciplinary approach to address real-world challenges around the participants; and Coding, Artificial Intelligence, and Character Training, which focuses on basic programming and application development for simple digital projects, as well as exploring basic artificial intelligence. Both trainings will also include character value reinforcement, with an emphasis on the graduate profile's eight dimensions: faith and devotion toward the Almighty God, citizenship, critical reasoning, creativity, collaboration, independence, health, and communication.

The Indonesian Talent Development Program is considered to be a strategic response to the country's requirement to develop exceptional human resources (HR) in the face of rapid global change. This effort did not arise out of nowhere; it is the result of multiple key difficulties and opportunities for innovation, speed, and competitive superiority. The Indonesian Talent Development Program is aimed to establish a competency-based and work-based training environment that meets the needs of future industries.