Newspapers connect remote students with the world

AN enthusiastic group of 100 students from Kalitudu’s high school SMA 1 impatiently waited for a special Newspapers in Education (NIE) English-language workshop to get underway at their school. The village of Kalitudu, 40 kilometers outside the city of Bojonegoro in East Java, is so remote you can hardly find it on the map.

Maybe the children were eager, but the school’s teachers and headmaster said they felt a little bit nervous.

“Our students rarely get an opportunity to speak English with native speakers. Their English is still very weak,” headmaster Zen Dahlan said apologetically. The workshop would prove his fears unfounded: His students came up with brilliant ideas during the two hours of constructive fun.

Each of ten groups of students was asked to put together an entire front-page of a newspaper, complete with headlines, major stories, pictures and cartoons. One group chose a corruption case for its lead story and balanced it with a striking political cartoon, “Yes, I Love Money” showing a corrupt government official with clutching fi stfuls of money. The other group popped up with “Terrorist Attacks in Mumbai,” and “Shoe Accident in Iraq,” for their headlines.

Looking at their work, it was obvious how a newspaper could help narrow the wide learning gap between urban and rural students. By reading and using newspapers as learning tools, all students could have similar access to information on current affairs in their country and the world.

“I never expected to see such great work produced in such a short time. Now I know my students are smart and creative,” said Nur Ali, the school’s English teacher as she proudly mounted her students’ work on the school’s bulletin board.

The activity was one in a series of NIE workshops jointly organized by The Jakarta Post  Foundation and Mobil Cepu Ltd between Dec. 15 and Dec. 19 to give English workshops to 80 teachers and 500 students from Bojonegoro schools, 120 kilometers west of East Java’s capital of Surabaya.

Mobil Cepu also provided one-year school sponsorships to four Bojonegoro high schools—SMAN 1 through 4—and the one high school in Kalitudu.

Rexy Mawardijaya from Mobil Cepu expected the program would improve English language skills and reading interest among both students and teachers. “We are committed to providing support for local schools to improve their learning standards so these students can keep up with
their peers in the cities.”