Role of education

Indonesia: Addressing the new normal for schools in rural areas

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Asia/ Indonesia/ 16.06.2020/ By: Sylvia Beiwinkler/  Source: www.thejakartapost.com.

Around 45 million students in Indonesia have been out of class for as long as three months due to COVID-19 fears. As a result, the education sector has changed dramatically with the rise of online learning, which requires students and teachers to continue their learning and teaching process remotely and on a digital platform.

The adoption of online learning is relatively manageable for students in urban areas as their access to connectivity is far better than in rural areas. Rural areas, especially in eastern Indonesia, lag behind when it comes to accessing quality education as facilities and resources are mostly limited. From uneven teacher distribution and shortage of school facilities — which makes the distance to school too far for many students — to inadequate learning space.

The role of education in rural communities is a crucial step to eradicate poverty. Happy Hearts Indonesia (Yayasan Hati Gembira Indonesia), a nonprofit organization dedicated to rebuilding schools in underprivileged areas and in areas affected by natural disasters, foresees that the first step to improving students’ education is to make sure they go to school in the first place, so they can have an equal opportunity to study.

Providing safe and healthy school buildings have a profound impact on improved learning outcomes both academically and interpersonally. Providing school facilities is also beneficial for parents and community members as it strengthens rural livelihoods, so adults can focus on rebuilding their lives and returning to work while their children are attending school.

The return to productivity allows a community to begin generating income more efficiently. To date, Happy Hearts Indonesia has rebuilt over 190 schools around Indonesia, benefitting more than 60,000 children and 300,000 community members.

With the current situation that forced schools to close and children to stay indoors, educational inequality is more visible than ever before. Despite the Education and Culture Ministry’s effort in cooperating technology-based online learning platforms to enabling students to continue their education, their effort is unavailing in rural areas, as many households are still unelectrified and preparedness for digital learning is rather poor.

According to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, over 1.1 million households in Indonesia did not have access to electricity in 2019, with East Nusa Tenggara province at the lowest electrification rate of 73 percent.

As what Bauhaus School founder Walter Gropius once said, “limitation makes the creative mind inventive”, and with compassionate hearts, teachers from the schools that Happy Hearts Indonesia has rebuilt took the initiative on how they addressed the distance-learning barrier amid the pandemic.

Sister Macrina, a kindergarten teacher in Ligouri in Southwest Sumba, visited her students’ houses twice a week to keep them engaged and learning. By doing so, Sister Macrina’s initiative can help prevent chronic absenteeism, which is associated with a permanent school dropout.

As a librarian, Ibu Novi is also keeping students at Masehi Elementary School (SDM) Rua and preschool Kamaru Kaba in Sumba enthusiastic by dropping off learning books at their homes from the community library.

In Flores, Catholic Elementary School (SDK) Roe’s head of school teaches in her house with less than five students a day, and when most students are too eager to study, she reopens the school with a social-distancing classroom setup and limits the sharing of materials within teachers.

Access to sanitation and clean water is also ensured in the school that we have rebuilt. Teachers are also trained on how to do proper hand-washing and now it has become a strict routine that teachers and schoolchildren have to practice to promote healthy standards amid COVID-19.

The adoption of this sincere initiative is indeed inspiring, but if this continues too long, this can only magnify inequities for students in rural areas as the school week is shortened. There is a lack of readiness to adopt remote learning and inadequate relevant tools to carry out remote teaching. Online learning cannot replace the dynamic of a classroom.

School itself is the equalizer to ensure children have equal opportunities to succeed in life. Even though we do not know when this pandemic will end and things get back to normal, the Education and Culture Ministry needs to find ways to promote remote learning without widening the gap of educational inequality.

Source of the news: https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2020/06/13/addressing-the-new-normal-for-schools-in-rural-areas.html

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Australia: Student protests show Australian education does get some things righ

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Oceania/ Australia/ 10.11.2018/ Source: theconversation.com.

Australia’s education system often suffers a barrage of criticism – claims of stagnant or declining NAPLAN results, slippage in international comparisons and rankings, and an irrelevant curriculum, tend to draw the attention of politicians, the media, and the Australian public.

It’s not often we are able to celebrate what’s right in Australia’s education system. But yesterday’s student presence at Parliament house and Friday’s protests where more than 15,OOO Australian students skipped class to demand greater action on climate change should be cause for celebration.

Far from being concerned about an afternoon off school, parents should feel satisfied schools and teachers are doing their job. Participation in these protests meets many of the key goals of our current education system, including students’ capacity to engage in, and strengthen, democracy. Rather than proof of a flawed education system, politically active and engaged students are evidence many aspects of our education system are working well.

Students want action on climate change

Protests called out the federal government’s lack of action on climate change during the protests. Wednesday’s parliament house rally specifically targeted the Adani coal mine project. Students were also seeking an audience with the prime minister to have their concerns heard.

The government’s response to these protests has been, at best, dismissive. Students’ actions have not been recognised as a genuine attempt to engage in robust democratic debate about climate change. Before Friday’s walk-out, Scott Morrison relegated students to the confines of their classrooms, “what we want”, he argued, “is more learning in schools and less activism”.

The students are right: activism is learning. Lukas Coch/AAP

Other members of government have been equally off-hand. Senator James McGrath was more concerned with a spelling error on a single student’s placard than the basis of their grievance. Resources minister Matt Canavan deemed protests as nothing more than a quick ticket “to the dole queue”.

The government’s response is both misinformed and misdirected. Beyond the obvious lack of recognition of political protest as a fundamental pillar of democracy, and means to political change, it also demonstrates a lack of recognition of the goals of Australian schooling, as outlined in our Melbourne Declaration.

The Melbourne Declaration and the role of education

The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australiansis a document signed by all Australian education ministers which outlines the mandated knowledge, skills and values of schooling for the period 2009-2018. The declaration is a national road map for education and a statement of intent by both federal and state governments, across partisan lines.

The declaration outlines two key goals:

  1. Australian schooling promotes both equity and excellence
  2. all young Australians become: successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens

It’s the first goal that gathers public attention as excellence and equity, in the form of measurable academic outcomes, dominates public discussion (think NAPLAN, My School, and PISA). More often than not, we’re told it’s here we’re getting things wrong.

In the second goal, the declaration attends to the broad purpose and significance of education. That is, the democratic purpose of education, as an avenue for students’ successful participation in civil society. If events of the last week are anything to go by, our students are all over goal two.

Students at a rally demanding action on climate change in Sydney, Friday, November 30, 2018. Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Sustainability is a stated priority in the Australian curriculum. Beyond understanding sustainable patterns of living and impacts of climate change, students are expected to develop skills to inform and persuade others to take action. Through these protests, relevant sections of the Melbourne Declaration read like a tick-list of student achievement. Students have demonstrated:

  • the ability to think deeply and logically, and obtain and evaluate evidence
  • creativity, innovation, and resourcefulness
  • the ability to to plan activities independently, collaborate, work in teams and communicate ideas
  • enterprise and initiative to use their creative abilities
  • preparation for their roles as community members
  • the ability to embrace opportunities and make rational and informed decisions about their own lives
  • a commitment to participate in Australia’s civic life
  • ability to work for the common good, to sustain and improve natural and social environments
  • their place as responsible global and local citizens.

The Melbourne Declaration is a recognition that education is more than a classroom test and more than measurable results. This is not to suggest the much lauded 3R’s (reading, writing and arithmetic) are not important in education – they are. Rather, it’s an understanding that education and learning is also, and importantly, social, and sometimes immeasurable in nature and practice.

Australian students’ activities over the past week evidence their knowledge and capabilities in an education system valuing both economic and democratic functions of education.

Rather than dismiss students’ actions as ill-informed or misdirected, or deny their capacity to effectively participate in democratic processes, we should recognise their learning and achievements. Let’s celebrate this achievement in Australian education, and encourage their capacity as active and informed citizens within our democracy.

Australian students understand progress happens when individuals join together to demand change. Politicians, take heed.

Source of the notice: http://theconversation.com/student-protests-show-australian-education-does-get-some-things-right-108258

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