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Mandalika Intercultural School to improve Lombok’s education sector
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W
ith the increase of foreign and domestic migrants to the Mandalika, Lombok and in parallel with the government’s effort to make the Mandalika a new tourism destination for Indonesia, various sectors are developing. In terms of education, Mandalika Intercultural School (MIS) is tasked with fulfilling the need for quality education with an international standards on the island.
The school was opened in 2017 under the name of Rinjani Indah School, however was recently changed under the leadership of Marc Thomson and Peter Ball as it expanded to a brand-new, state of the art, purpose-built campus in central Kuta. The campus was built sustainably and provided new modern classrooms, playing fields, Manta Hall (their bamboo assembly and indoor sports hall), arts, computer and science labs. The bamboo used throughout the school are sourced locally. The curriculum uses both indoor and outdoor learning spaces for collaboration and teaching and the construction of the school building is expected to be completed in October.
Drawing inspiration from Indonesian culture, sasak architectural designs were incorporated at the security gate from which children and parents enter the school. Moreover, the organic shape of the main hall is inspired by a giant manta, one of Indonesia's most beautiful and exotic marine creatures, capturing the heart of divers with its gentle, elegant ocean dance and unique shape and links the community and students to nature.
The school itself is located in the middle of a rice padi, with surrounding views of forested hillside and coconut trees. The school also has an orchard and mini-farm on the campus in order to encourage children to be closer to nature. The fruit and vegetables that are harvested are to be used in the school canteen.
The school serves all year groups from Early Years through to High School. The younger students from the Early Years program up until middle school follow the Australian Curriculum Framework, with an international focus for HASS (Humanities and Social Studies) and Science. Meanwhile, the high school curriculum follows the Cambridge A Level program, however students can opt to take some classes from the Australian and International Cambridge courses. The school is a member of the Foundation for Environmental Education.
The school offers a number of extracurricular activities such as surfing, skateboarding, yoga, martial arts, scuba diving, camping, football, rugby and also hiking. In line with their focus on HASS, MIS students are also directly involved in a number of social activities such as Kuta Lombok Dogs, Batu Bambu Kids Foundation, Lombok Aid, Lombok Plastic Free and more.
The school is embedded within a very tightly knit local community. The construction of their school building was made possible partly because of an increase in remote workers in Lombok after the inception of the MotoGP track and developments by ITDC and BUMN. MIS collaborates with the local community, namely with the management of the Al-Qur'an Education Park at the Baiturrahman Merendeng Mosque, to carry out collaborative activities with MIS students.
