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| a boy |
Term of “The price reflects the
quality” is presumably right, not only on business, but also on education, as
happening now in my village.
Since 2004, when our government
allocated 20% of national budget for education, most of people turn their hopes
on, due the budget reflects of free and have certain quality of school.
Unfortunately, since the
implementation of the policy, not too much changes with our education,
especially in the rural areas such as villages in Madura island, where most of
the people as farmer with more than 60% on tobacco and the rest are corn, bean
etc. The problems are; the lack of laboratory, library seems an expensive stuff
and the most horrible thing is teacher quality. It becomes worsen due their
truancy of teaching.
The Gimcrack Education, Their Stories.
Zen, 17, is a young man from
Serabarat, small village in Bluto sub-district. He is an only son of single
mother. His mother divorced 4 years ago when he was in the secondary school.
The miserable of life makes him having big ambition to get an education as high
as he can to improve their life. Sadly, he has to struggle alone to study
because the teachers always in absence. “I go to school so early every day for
nothing!” he said.
“I don’t know what to do when
they are in absence. Want to go to laboratories, the school doesn’t have, they
don’t even have a library, it is crappy! We did sharing, exchange an
outstanding student from each class to another, but not now anymore, I am
boring with that, I just need teachers to teach us!” said Susan, 16, a girl
from Talang, Saronggi sub-district. She thought that education is really
important to make people’s life better; due it will improve their knowledge,
creativity and skill, three important things to get a better job for a better
life.
Different story comes from Holis,
19, a young man from Dempo, Pasean sub-district where now he is an amateur
mechanic of small machine shop in the village. Formerly, he was a student at a
secondary school. He was never know that the school was free, because he was
asked to pay for some books, cleaning cost, and other annually events while he
had to struggle and suffer to get the money as porter of small stores in the
sub-district market, freelance of tobacco harvest belong to his neighbor and
construction laborer at 13 on his age, “I was sad. I have suffered to get money
but paid for nothing”
Another interesting and
disappointing story comes from Syaiful, 20 from Bira Timur. In 2009, he just
graduated from senior high school in Madura. He cannot continue to university
due he had a contract with the school to teach another school in a lack
village. The problem is not only about his quality as fresh graduate from
senior high school, but also his duty to handle and tackle Six Classes
with his only a friend.
The stories reflecting how expensive
the education in this country is, that can be enjoyed by certain people only,
no wonder if Hasbul, 25, a university student give comment, “Just like second China stuffs, education here
in the village is cheap and perishable. There is too much chinch inside!”
The Sun is Still Shining
In the messy of our education in
the country from upstream to down one, there is still hope. IBBIeducare is the example.
A community made by young community in the village has big ambition called “Become
knowledge epicenter in Madura”. They have collected hundreds of book, tens
programs was being held either for children, youth or adult, annually or
accidentally programs.
One of the most appreciated
program they are doing is Skill School, an entrepreneur program segmented for
young people that expected to be sustainable program by giving them training
and practice such as making Batik in the workshop nearby, Keris—Indonesian
traditional weapon—etc toward sustainable development refers to local wisdom.
The basic reason they made this
is to effort their skills and entrepreneurs of young people in the village in
order to they can face challenging and competitive work place, even more, they
can do their own business as a result of training and workshop they have ever had,
“We cannot rely on the government or school, we have to struggle to effort our
education, knowledge and skill!”, said Khoirul, 17, the chairman of
IBBIeducare.
Regarding finance, so far, the
program runs by self funding, especially from the stuffs they produce to sell
out. “But we still find a lot of obstacles such as books and computer to
monitor books out, because so far, we did it manually, so that, support from
Government, corporate and of course NGO’s concerns on education development are
really needed, for instance special allocation for special areas program, in
this case, lack region such as here in Madura island”, add Khoirul.
