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Jakarta Post

More youths volunteer to teach students in remote regions

In the Gerakan Indonesia Mengajar (GIM) foundation, the country’s youth are able to channel their passion for education through volunteering as teachers in remote areas

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Tue, November 1, 2016

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More youths volunteer to teach students in remote regions

I

n the Gerakan Indonesia Mengajar (GIM) foundation, the country’s youth are able to channel their passion for education through volunteering as teachers in remote areas.

GIM sends a new batch of educated youths every six months to teach for a year at elementary schools in remote areas across the archipelago. It has sent 12 groups since November 2010.

One of the youths, Rahmat Danu Andika, said he learned how to gain the trust of locals during his assignment at Pelita village in South Halmahera, North Maluku. He said it was initially hard to make the children listen to his instruction.

“It was even harder because I was in the first batch [of the program]. The students in remote areas have different cultures,” said Andika, who graduated from the Bandung Institute of Technology in 2010.

Patrick Samuel, who was in the ninth batch, said he was mostly challenged to share his knowledge with children in Waya village, South Halmahera.

“The children and people in the village were enthusiastic to learn, but the most challenging was how to pass the baton of the teaching method to local schools so our presence will still be felt even when we are no longer there,” he said.

He said that after spending 12 months in the village, the village’s schoolteachers and other members of the community had shown positive changes gradually. “They tried to copy the method I implemented.”

GIM’s basic education method for children focuses on community and school involvement, behavioral change and long-term individual development.

To become an educator at GIM, one has to undergo several screening stages that thousands of youths participate in. GIM will select 40 to 50 educators for every batch.

The country’s youth have shown increasing interest in the program, with nearly 10,000 applicants registered to be teachers for the latest batch, more than the 8,249 who applied for the previous batch 12.

The foundation — established by former education and culture minister Anies Baswedan, who is currently running as a Jakarta gubernatorial candidate — has deployed 713 young educators to teach more than 30,000 people in 22
provinces.

Most of the areas are impoverished and remote, such as Rote Ndao in East Nusa Tenggara, Fakfak in West Papua, Gresik in East Java, Kapuas Hulu in West Kalimantan and Lebak in Banten.

Dede, a Lebak local said that the foundation had helped the community in his area to develop the school’s education system.

“The young teachers asked the locals to participate in the schools and we appreciate that,” he said.

Foundation head Hikmat Hardono said the biggest challenge was making sure the young educators were fit for the tougher life in the regions.

“That is why, before departing for the remote areas, we always train the youth for two months and make sure they are fit,” he said, explaining that there was an educator who died of exhaustion during the work, referring to Aditya Prasetya, who passed away in November 2013.

Patrick also said that the educators must be physically ready because unexpected situations could happen.

“I boarded a small boat to sail from Labuha [South Halmahera’s capital] to Waya village and a tidal wave occurred on my way there,”he said.

Another challenge, Hikmat said, was how to engage in long-term interactions with the villagers.

“Building trust is the key to achieving the interaction, so that is what we need to do in the first place,” he said. (adt)

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