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View all search resultsHundreds of children in Siberut have no access to education
Underprivileged: Children study in a flimsy classroom under the guidance of a voluntary teacher at Tinambu hamlet in Siberut, Mentawai Islands, West Sumatra
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Underprivileged:: Children study in a flimsy classroom under the guidance of a voluntary teacher at Tinambu hamlet in Siberut, Mentawai Islands, West Sumatra. The school was founded by an NGO, Citra Mandiri Mentawai Foundation (YCMM), to help children living in the remote area get basic education. (Courtesy of YCMM) (YCMM), to help children living in the remote area get basic education. (Courtesy of YCMM)
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span class="caption">Underprivileged: Children study in a flimsy classroom under the guidance of a voluntary teacher at Tinambu hamlet in Siberut, Mentawai Islands, West Sumatra. The school was founded by an NGO, Citra Mandiri Mentawai Foundation (YCMM), to help children living in the remote area get basic education. (Courtesy of YCMM)
The nation commemorated Education Day on Saturday, but children in villages on the island of Siberut in Mentawai Islands Regency, West Sumatra, still have to walk hours to attend class at the nearest elementary school.
Meanwhile, many of the 500 children aged between seven and 16 years old take pompong (small motorized canoes) to school.
'Under such conditions, it's impossible for them to go to school and come back home. So don't be surprised if they cannot read or write,' the coordinator of the education and culture division of the Citra Mandiri Mentawai Foundation (YCMM), Tarida Hernawati, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Tarida said that YCMM, which is mostly funded by the Norwegian Rainforest Fund, had since 2004 run so-called forest schools in Siberut to help provide children in the area with access to education.
The first forest school was established in Beikeluk village, accommodating 25 children between seven and 16 years of age.
In the forest school, Tarida said, the children studied on the terrace of uma, traditional Mentawai houses, with no uniforms and great flexibility of timetable and curriculum. They mostly learned how to read and to count, she explained.
'We were just initiating and pioneering. A year after the school was set up, we handed it over to SD Santa Maria Muara Siberut elementary school as its filial or distance class,' Tarida said.
She added that the class at present consisted of 15 students, as those entering the 5th grade had been sent to continue their studies at SD Santa Maria on the island.
The second forest school, Sangong Uma School, was established in 2007 with 30 students in Sangong, a village located some five hours journey by pompong or a whole day's walk from Muntei subdistrict, where the nearest elementary school is located.
This forest school, Tarida said, had since last year been run as a distance class of state-run elementary school SDN 12 Muntei. Some of the graduates are currently studying at junior high schools in the regency.
The third forest school, and the only one still managed by YCMM, is Uma Tinambu School, located on the banks of the Silaoinan River.
The school was established in 2007. The nearest elementary school is located in Saliguna, some five hours' walk from Tinambu or a whole day's journey by pompong.
The school had 50 students when it was established, with pupil numbers now at 29, as every year between five and six children are sent to enter 5th grade at SDN 16 Saliguna.
These students must leave their home village and stay at a relative's house in Saliguna to prepare for the national exams.
Many other districts in the regency, Tarida said, were in equally dire need of educational facilities, including North Siberut, Central Siberut and Southwest Siberut districts, where over 500 children are thought to lack access to schooling.
Mentawai Deputy Regent Rijel Samaloisa admitted that there were indeed many remote villages in Siberut that had no access to education services.
He expressed gratitude to YCMM for its concern on the matter. The regency administration, he said, cooperated by accommodating the forest schools established by YCMM as distance classes of state-run schools at the expense of the administration.
'This year we initiated a program to create a database on educational conditions in Mentawai, including for villages with no access to education,' Rijel said, adding that the data would be used to formulate an integrated program next year.
The program, he went on, would involve the regency Education Agency, Public Works Agency and Health Agency, and would, including through road development, ensure any new school was built in a location accessible from many areas,
He added that the administration would provide 500 extra teachers, prioritizing teachers who had already served long contracts in the regency.
'Hopefully, some can also fulfill the need for teachers in the distance schools established by YCMM,' Rijel said.
