maandag 19 mei 2014

Education in Papua

Today I was school photographer at SSB. I will never forget the smiles and the hearts full of love. These teachers are doing the impossible by running a great school without any education background. Motivated and passionate about their dream: good education for the next generation. In a country where teachers normally don’t show up, where kids are being told that they are stupid and where most kids leave elementary school without reading and writing skills. The work the teachers of Sekolah Sinar Baliem do, is dealing with one of the main problems in Papua. The whole education system is 'busuk' (rotten). 

Close to our house I saw a Javanese teacher beating high school kids because they didn't have good shoes and good clothing when they arrived at school. Another common thing here: most kids have to pay to pass their exams, for girls that can mean that they have to have sex with the teacher. There is no safe environment and it's all about getting a diploma. You can even buy an S-1 (Bachalor), S-2 (Masters) or a S-3 (PGD) here in Papua at some universaties. Benny, our director, needs a S-1 because he is leading Lentera, and he goes to the only 'university' in Wamena that offers S-1's. And even there teachers don't show up, and he never learned anything from them.. These are only a few examples.

While doing research for my thesis on discipleship in Lentera, I found a quite recent study on 'Teacher Absenteeism in Papua and West Papua'. They studied thousands of schools in total, including 677 highland schools in Papua. The main results: (1) One in two teachers in the highland districts are absent. (2) Even when teachers do attend school, the learning of children is very ‘sporadic’, with teachers likely ‘rotating’ days of absence from the school. (According to our Papuan friends, the reality is even worse then the results of this study). 

Can you imagine why I was so happy today? Change is happening now because God put a mission in the hearts of these teachers. God is able. The people we worked with the last 7 months are a big example for us.

Theo



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