Bogor, West Java. After enduring a one-hour trek uphill
through muddy pathways to reach her elementary school in the village of Gobang,
Bogor, 12-year-old Yanti doesn’t know if she’ll learn anything after the hike.
She and her classmates are sometimes told to go back home because their
teachers are often late — if they show up at all.
The condition has forced the
school’s keeper, 17-year-old Supriyadi, who only has a junior high school
diploma, to act as a substitute teacher.
“For the students here, if Bu Ayu
or Pak Fahzri haven’t showed up by 9 a.m., we can either go home or take Pak
Supri’s class,” Yanti said, refering to the school’s two teachers.
The nameless school sits on top
of Kukuh Sumbung hill, five kilometers away from the nearest paved road, to provide
basic education for two isolated hamlets — Kukuh Sumbung and Pabuaran —
inhabited in total by 150 families, mostly farmers.
Before the school was built in
2010 through the help of the Community Empowerment National Program, students
had to walk more than five kilometers to the nearest elementary school in
Gobang, which prevented many families from sending their children to school.
But given poor attendance from
teachers in the Kukuh Sumbung school, some children have stopped bothering to
come at all,
particularly as the district,
which borders Jakarta to the north, enters the rainy season. The rains
transform beaten roads and paths into impenetrable pools of mud, forcing
students to take detours and walk even further.
“In the dry season it usually
takes less than one hour because we can cut through the hills,” Yanti said,
adding that this time she and her friends had to cross the neighboring village
of Cijantur.
The school only has two
classrooms, forcing the 150 students from different grades to study together,
often sharing books their parents can’t afford. Some students’ families cannot
afford their uniforms, while others show up to class barefoot.
The walls are dirty from muddy
water leaks and construction for the school’s facade remains unfinished with
the scaffolding still in place. The school has one bathroom, but no running
water.
Supriyadi said he felt sorry for
the students, who journeyed on kilometers of muddy roads just to reach the
school.
“Actually, I only graduated from
junior high school but I have to do something if the teachers don’t come,” he
said. “What can I do? I am sad to see the kids come only to be told to go
home.”
After Supriyadi taught the first
and second graders for more than an hour, finally one teacher showed up —
22-year-old Yunengsih, arriving on her old scooter. Known to her students as Bu
Ayu, Yunengsih was soaking wet, her uniform dirty from mud.
Yunengsih, who is still finishing
college, said sometimes she has to attend morning classes at her university in
Bogor, 30 kilometers away on winding and heavily congested roads.
“That is why sometimes I have to
abandon teaching,” she said. “I want to graduate right away so I can become a
full-time civil servant and concentrate on teaching.”
Even if she doesn’t have to
attend classes at her university, getting to work means travelling 10
kilometers from her home in Bojong Kulur village on a motorcycle, spending more
than half of her Rp 500,000 ($52) monthly salary on gasoline.
“For gasoline, I spend about Rp
300,000 per month and if I cannot use my motorcycle, I have to take ojek
[motorcycle
taxi], which costs Rp 50,000
round trip,” she said.
Schoolkeeper Supriyadi said he
only gets paid Rp 300,000 per month and
he doesn’t get any extra for
being a substitute teacher. The other teacher, Fahzri, did not show up the day
the Jakarta Globe visited.
But the school is the only way
for children like Yanti to get a formal education. Most of the children her age
are already in sixth grade, but Yanti, who only got a taste of formal education
when the school opened, has to mingle with classmates between 8 and 9 years of
age.
“Before, I only attend Koran
recital lessons in my village but I was asked by Pak Muklis [her Koran teacher]
to go to formal school so I can learn how to read and write,” Yanti said.
Vento Saudale
Business & Investment Opportunities
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Healthcare and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN. Since we are currently changing the platform of www.yourvietnamexpert.com, you may contact us at: sbc.pte@gmail.com, provisionally. Many thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment