Gongs!n and Maha Mentor: A Solution to Education Inequality in Indonesia
Seung-Eun Yang · Journal of Marketing Thought · 2014
Social mobility allows individuals to move upward within a social hierarchy with positive changes in education and income, but students’ educational opportunities tend to be affected by their families’ socioeconomic status. Educational inequality, which is likely to persist in the twenty-first century, can be particularly problematic in developing countries, where there are limited opportunities for the less fortunate to receive quality education. The mission of Gongs!n, a Seoul-based social enterprise founded in 2006, is to provide “one Gongs!n mentor for every student in South Korea.” Gongs!n provides young, underprivileged students with the information they need to achieve academic success and youth mentoring programs that help underprivileged children to build and achieve their dreams. In pursuing this mission, Gongs!n helps to reduce educational inequality in South Korea. The founders of Gongs!n went to Indonesia in 2011 to spread the Gongs!n business model with the help of graduate students at GadjahMada University, who shared their interest in fostering education among young Indonesians. Indonesia has been experiencing the inequality issues in terms of education, poverty, and regional division that are typical in the early phase of economic progress. Maha Mentor, an Indonesian social enterprise of Gongs!n started off with a mentoring program at public schools in 2011 and in 2013 established its own Gongs!n center with the support of a corporate partner, Korea Telecom (KT), where it provided private education services that generated revenue. The social enterprise then invested the revenue generated in the private education services into designing a low-cost, portable education device with Wi-Fi capability that can help overcome the problem of low internet availability in Indonesia. Maha Mentor devised an information- and-communication technologies-based e-learning business solution to reach a large number of underprivileged students in various regions and to expand high-quality educational and mentoring services using information technologies. Gongs!n and Maha Mentor share the belief that education is the bridge by which motivated people can move beyond the inequality that exists in traditional social structures. Maha Mentor helps Indonesians pursue their dreams for a better future by helping to improve underprivileged students’ academic performance using advanced information technologies, thereby reducing regional gaps in educational equality. The Gongs!n business model and its considerable achievements indicate that social entrepreneurship can drive innovation by ensuring that knowledge is shared equally in order to alleviate social inequality and foster hope that not only those from the elite class, but anyone who is willing can create a better future.