Building deep‑tech,
and reimagining education.

Why I build this

We say merit.
We mean geography.

I spoke with one of the leaders of BBAF, a scholarship community on Rote Island. He told me about one of their learners, a girl who wants to study further.

Rote is the southernmost island in Indonesia. Past it there is nothing but the Indian Ocean and, eventually, Australia. It is small, it is remote, and if you have heard of it at all it is probably for the surfing. About 152,000 people live there, per Indonesia’s own statistics bureau. It is the far edge of the country, and everything about what follows comes down to that.

There is no English test centre on Rote. The nearest one is in Kupang, the provincial capital, on the next island across the water.

Look at the boat before you look at the money. The fast ferry leaves Rote at noon and reaches Kupang at two in the afternoon. The test is in the morning. So she has to cross the day before and sleep in the city. The boat home leaves at nine the next morning, which she will miss, so she sleeps there again.

The schedule alone has already cost her two nights. Now add it up.

• Ferry, Rote to Kupang (Executive)Rp 170.000
• Ferry backRp 170.000
• Port pass and insuranceRp 21.000
• Two nights in Kupang (cheapest homestay)Rp 200.000
• Food and local transport, three daysRp 150.000
• IELTS Academic, the test fee itselfRp 3.490.000
• What it costs her to sit downRp 4.201.000

Ferry fares are the operator’s published tariff. The test fee is the published IELTS price. Lodging and food are the cheapest figures I could find, so this total is a floor, not an estimate of a comfortable trip.

The minimum wage in her province is Rp 2.455.898 a month. Sitting the test costs 1.7 times that. Nearly two months of full-time work, spent before she has answered a single question.

And it does not buy her a degree. It does not buy her a place. It only proves she is allowed to apply.

If the score comes back half a band short, she pays it all again.

A student in Jakarta takes a bus across town, pays out of pocket money, and sleeps in her own bed. If the score disappoints, she books a tutor and sits it again next month.

Same exam. Same scoring. We call the result merit.

She is not short of ability. She is short of proximity.

Geography should not be destiny. That is what I build against.