Helping out at Sekolah Bisa!

Today I have gained the privilege to assist a group of "unprivileged individuals", a term used by my mum and other expatriates, in their education. Because my school considers itself to be very charitable, they have set up another school catering for the underprivileged. This school was called, as it says in the title, "Sekolah Bisa!" which translates to "school is possible" or something to that effect.


Helping the students was always considered a challenge as I have always felt that my power of  the language they use, Bahasa Indonesia, the official language used in Indonesia, was not sufficient enough for such a task. For the first few minutes I found the task of introducing myself as well as creating a bond between "assistant teacher" and student very difficult. However, after spending an hour with them words I once forgotten have came back to me and began to flow out of my mouth as if it was never forgotten which, in retrospect, probably never was forgotten.


Although there were thirteen year old students, they were studying along with ten year old students. They seemed very eager to learn. Never in their lives did they have such an opportunity before. However, as expected, the thirteen year old's   were more committed to their studies due to the profound maturity that they possessed. We managed to teach them how to add and subtract by negative numbers. They could also catch on the concept of Algebra very easily, a task which I impressed me greatly. In total, there were two classes, another class catering for the younger students aged 6 to 10. They were learning how to read and write in their own language! They, like the other students, had the drive to learn and understood and completed the task at a rate I could not have imagined. 


However, despite being called "underprivileged", they do not strike me as people living in poverty. Despite living within a garbage dump, they seem to be living quite a happy life. They have relatively clean water found in wells and buildings made of concrete for worship and housing purposes. They also have a stable supply of electricity. My mum and I, along with some other friends, regularly come by the supply the people with food and drinks to ensure they are well fed. They are not extremely slim. In fact, some of them strike me as quite pudgy. However, this does not equate to good health, as my mum always says. 


Perhaps I may be a little insensitive of the lifestyle of these people, being born in Singapore, a country that has not seen such things and only relate poverty to the people of Africa. What I say is absolutely my opinion and should not be taken in as a fact. 


What saddens me about Indonesia is how low education is considered. In Indonesia, a person that has graduated from college is more likely to earn less money than a driver! In Indonesia, a driver gets an average pay of 2.5 million rupiah ( $276 USD) per month while a teacher gets an average pay of 1.8 million rupiah ( $196 USD). As a result, a teacher would probably have to be a teacher in more than one school to be able to support his family. This aspect of Indonesia is probably the reason why it is considered  a LEDC ( Lower Economically Developed Country) despite its resources in coal, spices and textiles.