The schools along the banks of the Sila'€™Oinan River in Siberut, Mentawai Islands, off mainland West Sumatra, mirror the educational conditions in the island regency, where students and teachers have minimal learning and teaching facilities.

Wahida Saregdek, a barefoot 11-year-old student in her school uniform, waits for her classmates. The sun is rising high as they hurry to school not far away. With nine other students, Wahida is a fourth grader of the state primary school in Salappa hamlet, South Siberut district. '€œI have no school bag,'€ she timidly says.

Wahida'€™s school is only a wooden building with a zinc roof. Her class is partitioned between second and third grades. The hot weather causes dust to circulate in the room and the students sit on a coarse cement floor pockmarked with holes.

Next year, Wahida, who aspires to be a teacher, will enter the fifth grade but she is in doubt as to whether she can further her study. The fifth grade is located in Muara Siberut, a four-hour trip by motorboat from Salappa.

It costs at least Rp 400,000 (US$29) to go downstream from Salappa by motorboat, which has to be shared by four people. Her grandparents suggested that she quit school but Wahida insisted that she continue even though she has felt haunted by the distance since her promotion to the fourth grade.

Salappa primary school principal, Tulut Ogo'€™ Tasiripoula, gave a surprise one weekend. '€œWahida is lucky, next year we'€™ll be opening the fifth grade with new teachers,'€ said Tulut, whose school has 81 students with only four teachers.

'€œOur school has just gained its state-run status. Since its founding in 2004, this school has been considerably assisted by the Yayasan Prayoga and Yayasan Citra Mandiri Mentawai [foundations],'€ Tulut says.

Salappa is not the only hamlet upstream of the Sila'€™Oinan River. Further in the upper reaches, about a two hour trip by motorboat, there'€™s the Magosi hamlet with its secluded primary school. Originally Magosi children used a church for their study. Later, Yayasan Citra Mandiri Mentawai provided aid by building a modest room for the school, says one of the three teachers there, Maria Karmel.

While we are young: Children pose in front of their school in Bekkeiluk.

Maria has taught in the hamlet since 2013. Seconded by the primary school of Tinambu hamlet, which is around a five hour walk away, Maria finally decided to settle. '€œIt'€™s a long way from Tinambu and back,'€ she added.

In a room like an auditorium without partitions, students of different grades in Magosi sit on the wooden floor. The school was designed like a platform with a small stair at its entrance. A long table and bench lies in a corner for teachers to examine homework.

Meanwhile, three children are playing wooden wheels with a meter-long lever to hold. Fernando Sagulu, Alexander Sabeleakek and Sinerius Sagulu are second graders in Bekkeiluk hamlet. In the third grade, Yustina Sagulu and Elisabeth Sagulu are learning arithmetic with sticks.

This hamlet is accessible from Salappa by a 30-minute walk. As the road has been hardened, some people go to Bekkeiluk by motorcycle. The school is actually a church service room converted into first to third grades without partitions.

Erina Sigoiso'€™ Uma (30) has taught here for 10 years. The school started in 2005 as a study group facilitated by Yayasan Citra Mandiri Mentawai.

'€œNow it'€™s already a branch of the Santa Maria state primary school in Muara Siberut. Students are subjected to Rp 3,000 monthly fees for the school committee and equipment. We have just 16 students here,'€ she indicated.

Erina and her peers are mostly volunteers, receiving monthly honorariums of Rp 700,000 that has to be collected from Muara Siberut, a three hour sail along Sila'€™ Oinan. '€œHamlet roads and bridges for land transportation haven'€™t been adequately built yet,'€ she says.

In addition to difficult access, the Mentawai Islands regency still has no textbook on the subject of Siberut'€™s own history.

Even Tulut admits confusion when his students ask about where the Siberut people came from. He says that teachers in Mentawai are also baffled when asked about Mentawai'€™s history.

'€œWe maintain that the Siberut people have existed since antiquity. We believe in Ula Manua, governing the entire life. In our faith, Arat Sabulungan has also been present since the habitation of Mentawai Islands,'€ explains Tulut.

He claims that there is no other explanation. Bekkeiluk school teacher Erina shares a similar concern.

Dedication: Erina Sigoiso'€™ Uma, a teacher at Bekkeiluk elementary school, is teaching her pupils to read. The school is actually a church service room converted into a first to third grade classroom, without partitions.

Mentawai'€™s history, Erina urged, should be researched. With government support, this research is feasible and the results could be compiled into a textbook.

Environmental activist Rachmadi shares the view of Erina. He says the government should provide money to support programs for the promotion of children'€™s education on the Mentawai Islands.

Rachmadi described the origin of Mentawai as important to the island people, especially in connection with local beliefs already prevailing for a long time. Such a history is connected to patterns of natural resources and areas of indigenous ethnic groups.

'€œWithout any study of this subject, the Mentawai people will always be in a conflict zone. It won'€™t just be vertical conflict between the state and society but will also affect the existing social structure,'€ he stressed.

The conflict in Mentawai, according to Rachmadi, involves investors and local communities, with the former easily controlling resources through the government. In this context, it concerns the control of land. The local people often have to accept conditions as they are because they are ignorant of their own origin.

The inclusion of local history in the curriculum, says Rachmadi, should be resolved. With this subject, Mentawai'€™s future children will know their region and community more deeply. In turn, conflicts of interest could be reduced.

Mentawai Regency Legislative Council Deputy Speaker Kortanius Sabeleake says: '€œWe'€™re discussing a draft bylaw concerning educational service, so that we expect relevant parties to patiently await the finalization of this regulation.'€

The bylaw concerns the broader scope of education besides the curriculum and school buildings. It also covers other facilities like roads and supporting textbooks. '€œWe hope the regional regulation will be ready and implemented early next year,'€ he adds.

'€“ Photos by Syafrizaldi Jpang