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student at the Semarang special senior high school for disabled children (SLB), Rizki, is busy dipping his brush into a pot of batik wax. He then randomly splatters the wax on white cloth.

'€œI will make a batik cipratan [splatter] fabric. Here, we are trained to make batik cipratan. It'€™s easy, My friends and I make 15 sheets of the batik fabric daily,'€ said Rizki.

In a single session, five sheets of cloth are stretched on plastic pipes. The students need not worry about making mistakes when making batik cipratan because the patterns are intentionally disorganized.

The cloth later has the colors applied. After everything has been colored, the next process is to remove the wax by dipping the cloth in hot water. After it dries, the colorful batik cipratan fabric is ready for use.

'€œThere are 50 types of batik cipratan. We name them all after places in Semarang, such as Lawang Sewu, Srondol and Gombel,'€ Semarang SLB principal Ciptono said recently.

The school is attended by 600 students from pre-school, kindergarten, elementary, to junior high and senior high school level. Some parents continue to entrust their children, who are entering adulthood, to the school even though they have graduated from the senior high school.

These students have physical limitations, such as hearing, speech and sight impairments.

Ciptono, who was named the model teacher for Central Java and Yogyakarta in 2006, believes that every student in his school has his or her own specialties.

 '€œThey are not failed products of God, because God never fails. Our duty here is to optimize their capabilities. Some are not good at mathematics at all, but they have lovely voices and are good at singing,'€ he said.

The Semarang SLB, consisting of 86 full-time and 50 temporary teachers, provides training in a variety of skills, such as sewing, welding and pottery.

The school is famous for successfully teaching children with disabilities. Ciptono has appeared on the Kick Andy program on MetroTV. The school frequently receives representatives from other schools or institutions seeking inspirational ways to teach special children.

Recently, a group of teachers from the Pelita Bangsa SLB and Tunas Harapan SLB from Jombang, East Java, visited the school to pick up some ideas. '€œWe are interested in the batik cipratan. At our school, we also have batik lessons, but it is difficult to teach conventional batik-making. Batik cipratan turns out to be easier to do,'€ said Pelita Bangsa SLB principal Sih Wilujeng.

Separately, the Mardi Utomo Social Rehabilitation Center, under the auspices of the Central Java Social Agency, invited 60 of its inmates, who are mostly beggars and vagrants, for retraining so they can get work when they return to society.

'€œWe have trained them for eight months. We invited them here for self-motivation. If the physically impaired children are able to work and create good things, then our people should be able to do even better,'€ said group leader Pudji Astuti.

A piece of finished batik cipratan fabric packaged in plastic can sell for between Rp 110,000 (US$9.10) and Rp 130,000 ($10.85).

Ciptono said he had a dream of expanding the school into an integrated training facility and shopping center run by the students. He hoped the government would be willing to provide a 10-hectare plot for the school'€™s expansion.

'€œOur wish is to become a global inspiration,'€ said Ciptono.