-------- Pangeran Kalijaga --------

From Dust to Dutch;
Changing Conservative Mindset in Educating Children of the Poor

Written by Miranda Syevira

For them, there  is no  limit to break the  limitations. They create their own way to bring these children up to see a brighter future than singing road to road or being scavengers. Two  years  ago,  I  met  two  children  in  kampung  Juminahan  near  Code  River,  wearing oversized  shirt,  bringing  a  cup  of Rupiah’s  coin  and  singing  in  front  of me,  no  guitar,  no sandals or shoes, no adults besides them. When I asks them what did they do and don’t they go  to  school  tomorrow morning,  they  shouted  in  Javanese  language: aku  ra  sekolah mbak, mung nggolek duit, luwih penak (we are not attend to school, miss. It is better to looking for some money) And  I was  surprised  that  their parents  let  these  two  little kids  singing  road  to road  till  midnight  whereas  that  area  was  a  place  for  all  adults.  And  they  never  attend  to school!

Yes,  that  is  the  reality  of  the  children  in  kampung  Juminahan  and  kampung  Jagalan,  two neighborhoods  in  the  sides  of Code River, who  lives  under  the  crowded-polluted  bridges. Some of  them have  to drop out from school  to help  their parents  fulfil  the daily needs. And few  of  them  never  attend  to  school  at  all.  Ironically,  this  place  located  in  the  middle  of Yogyakarta Special Province which  is known  in Indonesia as an Education City. But since a decade ago, there  is wonderful will  from  the society  to change  their condition  in  the middle of  Javanese  principle,  nerimo—a  concept of  Javanese  people which means  they will  never complain about what  they get  in  life,  just accept and pray. This different mindset of people has been catalysis by a non-profit institution built by the youth of kampung itself, called Anak Wayang Indonesia (AWI).

“AWI  formed  in  November,  10th  1998,  right  after  Indonesia’s  New  Orde  is  fallen  Since every  people  has  a  same  right  to  organized  anything  they  want.,  we  were  getting  more enthusiastic to build an organisation which facilitate the educational rights for the children of poors around Code river,” said Sipen, one of AWI’s founder.

”We are now guiding 50 students  in classes and 150 children  in every activities outside  the class  spreaded  in  3  areas:  Juminahan,  Jagalan  and  Ledhok  Tukangan.  Most  of  them  are coming  from  a  poor  family  which  the  parents  is  a  Becak  (Pedicab)  drivers,  labor  and construction worker, hawkers, scavengers, newspaper seller and many more.  If one of  them drop out  from  formal  school due  to economic  reasons, AWI will provide  the  fund and  link them to the donators,” said AWI’s secretary, Ema Vidiastuti.

Prioritizing Children’s Rights to be Heard One  thing we  usually  forget  is  the most  important  thing  in  educational  institutions  such  as family and school  is to provide a space for the children to express their opinion or what they want.  Whereas  this  point  had  been  written  in  Indonesian  Constitution  and  International Convention of Children Rights which  include four aspects: non-discrimination, best interests for children, rights for live, protect themselves and develop, and also rights in participation.

That  is  why  AWI  has  a  unique  way  to make  these  kids—who  are  not  too  interesting  to study—being engaged  in classes: They  let  the kids arrange  their own curriculum  and what they’re going  to do with  it. “When kids come  to play and  learn  in AWI,  they will be asked about what do  they want  to do  in AWI.  If a  little girl  says  that she want  to  learn dance and Math more than another, she will get it. There are no limitations as long as we have an ability to serve it,”said a senior volunteer who better known as Pak Pethel. Moreover in AWI’s small school, there are no registration process as we found in formal school. The kids just come and start to learn and play directly.

These brilliant  ideas attract more and more kids  to come and  learn “We will never  force  the children  to  follow  the  straight curriculum. We want  them  to be a  free  student because  they have  their own wants. Some  school  little  boys asks  to have Punk music  lessons. We  try  to facilitate  them  using  the  fund  from  donators  and  provide  a  music  room  Up  till  now, underground music subject is still exist in AWI.” he continued.

“There  are  so much  fun! We also  learn outdoor. Walked along  the  river  sides, plant  some trees, learning Math and Bahasa in the beach or in saung near the volleyball field, and so on. We didn’t have a choice  to play  in a  large space anymore since  the  field nearby was  turned into an apartment.” shouted a ten years old student of AWI.      

Few Steps Forward

AWI steps in 3 main corridors of cooperation: children, teenagers and parents or society. The program  for  children  is  implemented  in  daily  schedule  devided  to  art  class  (theater, pantomime,  painting  and  music  class),  dolanan  (motoric  games),  language  and communication  forum  and  also  science  class.”  In  the week  end,  there  can  be  an  art  show, health  controlling  and  children  conseling. The  last  one  is  not  regulary,  but  only  in  special cases. If the student has attend junior or senior high school, we also help them to explore their skills and creativity  through  the Peace Building Program  including  film-making,  theater and  research.  They’re  gonna  be  a  peer  mediator  as  an  effort  to  reduce  the  students  brawl,”
explained Pak Pethel.

For  the parents and societies, AWI held a  forum or discussion  in a special  time and visited them door to door to discuss their children progress, held some workshops and campaigning children rights through the media, some competitions and carnival, all performed by the kids and parents—things that never happened in formal school.

By  changing  students  and  parents mindset  about  education,  they  could  explore  children’s ability much better than what formal school do. These children who usually played in a dusty field which is now turn into a 7 floor apartment, had a chance to see another side of the world within Gangneung  International Folklore Festival 2004  in South Korea and  traveled around Netherland in 21 days to perform Indonesian dance, theater and traditional games on Mundial Festival few years ago.

No, no, without a different way to treat the children of the poor, there will never be a chance to  bring  them  to  see  the world. This  kind  of  school  play  the main  role  to  create  students habitus being more sensitive to the nature, more tolerance each other, and more creative than any other children  in  formal school. Unfortunately,  there are no chance  for  informal school like AWI  to be certificated as a governmental  school. Yogyakarta’s government budget  for education is only about 139 billion Rupiahs, whereas the province income is about 1,4 trillion Rupiahs This is not meet the standard of national budgeting for education which is 20 % from total income of the province. “The government has a big support for the informal institutional education  like AWI, but still,  it can’t be  formalized. But we can help  in donation anytime” Said Arief, S.IP, Yogyakarta’s legislator.

There are still so many parents and children who never ever care about education  in another part of rural and urban area  in Indonesia. If  this condition happened  in a country which has full  facilitated  and  low-paying  school  for  every  children,  or  in  a  country  where  the government put education for the children as the priority, it is really too easy to put the blame personally, but come and  look beyond:  if there are no system who support them  in accesable educational institutions, let’spoint the finger to the insensitive governmen...[]