After 37 days since the  confirmed  first two cases of Covid-19 victims in Indonesia on 02 March 2020, the Indonesian Government updated the increase of Covid-19 cases  to become 3,293 persons positive, 280 died and 252 recovered on 9 April 2020. Since then, as the follow up action to address the significant increase in the number of positive Covid-19 cases, the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) gradually issued letters on the extension of Working from Home (WFH) regulation. In accordance with the Indonesian MoEC’s instructions,  7 SEAMEO Centres in Indonesia extended the WFH scheme until 29 May 2020.

The long period of WFH implementation has significantly affected  the Centre’s research and training activities. The grantees of research projects modified all of their research activities into  indoor activities, while several  training courses were conducted online.

Deputies Director of seven SEAMEO Centres in Indonesia initiated an in-house training activity through series of online sharing session to enhance the skills of the Centres’ staff on various areas of expertise. Centres' staff who have expertise in certain field served as  resource persons. Board of Directors and staff from seven SEAMEO Centres in Indonesia joined the online sessions.

The series began on 04 May 2020 with ‘Public Speaking’ topic, presented by Mr Cepri Maulana from SEAMEO CECCEP. The topic of the second session was ‘Personal Development to Build Professional Personal Character’, presented by Dr Trisnani Widowati from SEAMEO QITEP in Mathematics on 08 May 2020. The third session was held on 11 May 2020, with the topic of ‘Tips and Tricks on Utilizing Microsoft Excel’ by Rizwan Darmawan, MM, from SEAMEO QITEP in Science. Mr Ahmad Thohir Hidayat from SEAMEO RECFON became a resource person for the fourth session by delivering a topic on ‘Introduction of Electronic Sign (eSign) and Its Use in SEAMEO RECFON’ on 13 May 2020. The next session was presented by Mr Puryanto from SEAMEO SEAMOLEC on 14 May 2020 with the topic of ‘Creating an Effective PowerPoint Slide for Presentation’. Dr Luh Anik Mayani from SEAMEO QITEP in Language was the sixth resource person with a topic of ‘Indonesian in Official Document Administration’ on 18 May 2020. The activity was ended by a presentation from SEAMEO BIOTROP on 20 May 2020. The Centre featured Ms Santi Ambarwati, MSi, to share information on the implementation of quality management goals. (rf/zsp)