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mong the reflections around Indonesia'€™s 70th Independence Day is that most parents want to see their children achieve the best at school in a joyful learning environment.

Sadly, such an atmosphere that empowers and engages children at school is not easy to find. What is the cost to a nation in perpetuating this discouraging and bullying atmosphere in our education system?

I am not an expert on education but a father of three wonderful daughters who is lucky enough to be able to raise them in such a joyful and respectful learning atmosphere in Melbourne.

In 2008, I won a scholarship to pursue a PhD in engineering at Monash University. The scholarship was only enough to cover tuition fees and personal expenses. However, my first daughter, Aliya, who was then 6 years old, insisted that she wanted to come with me.

She complained that her school gave her a mountain of homework and her teacher was not inspiring her to study. She said that teachers mostly demanded students to '€œsit down properly'€ and '€œlisten'€ during lessons.

Aliya'€™s story is far too common for many parents in Indonesia.

In 2009, I brought Aliya to accompany me to continue my studies in Melbourne. My wife and parents were worried about how I would take care of Aliya. She was only 7, and it was my first experience
living in Australia and I had never cooked before. My family was also worried that Aliya would not be able to catch up with Australia'€™s education system; she could not speak any English.

But things changed dramatically when I took Aliya to her new school, Clayton North Primary School (CNPS), for the first time. The school provided a different culture of learning; teachers welcomed and accommodated her very well. Aliya was not stressed and her self-confidence improved. She was excited and happy, and always wanted to go back to school as soon as possible during holidays.

Aliya'€™s experience portrays a different culture of education than in Indonesia. As she had to deal with many subjects with less exciting things happening in class, she always looked forward to weekends.

My second daughter, Jaeza, was a shy and quiet girl. When I enrolled her at Aliya'€™s school, she became expressive and confident. She was once awarded '€œstudent of the week'€ due to her extraordinary presentation in class.

My youngest daughter, Sora, never seemed to care about her academic achievements. However, when she started to study at the school, she achieved very good results both academically and in work habits. And she maintained her performance consistently.

I keep hearing similar stories from my Indonesian colleagues who sent their children to this school. What did CNPS actually do to them?

This school is a typical state school equipped with standard infrastructure and technology. There is nothing special in terms of the buildings and facilities compared to some other schools in Melbourne. But how could CNPS have changed students'€™ lives and seemed to become a second home for children?

I started to follow the school'€™s activities while I was working on my thesis on information technology. I was impressed with the school education system and I want to see more Indonesian children have the same experience like my daughters. A joyful atmosphere in our education system would be a good foundation to build this nation. Our children are our future.

To make this change in Indonesia, I capitalized on my experience as a student activist leading a student movement in 1998.

This experience taught me that you can only make change if you collaborate with others.

Thus, when I initiated a grassroots movement aiming to build a new school culture in Indonesia, I organized many volunteers, mainly Indonesian students in Melbourne, to document the school practices since 2012. I named this movement Gerakan Sekolah Menyenangkan (Joyful school movement).

We wanted to share children'€™s experiences at school for teachers and parents in Indonesia because these experiences have a significant impact on children'€™s wellbeing and learning. In doing so, we published two books, Sekolah itu Asyik (Schooling is fun) and Sekolah Nir Kekerasan (School without violence). More than 50 Indonesian PhD students from Australia, Asia, and Europe and in the US contributed to these books.

Since 2014, we have been working with CNPS to send their teachers to Indonesia to share their knowledge and practices with our pilot schools in Yogyakarta, a program enabled by the full support of the private Ahmad Dahlan University there.

We managed to convince Monash University to assist the development of the framework based on research and the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority to �support module development and content delivery. With this partnership, we aim to help more schools, even in rural or remote areas, to improve children'€™s learning while instilling positive behavior through a joyful approach.

As student awardees, we must pay our society back and help all our young people gain better education to improve their lives in the future.