Working at su-re.co pt 12: Are you Educationally Privileged?

Hi again!

I’m Maya from Do-business and Be-event team. As you may know, my blogs are mostly telling you about su-re.co’s company culture and yes! I will continue my series of working at su-re.co pt. 12

su-re.co giftmakers and I are now preparing the upcoming collaborations with Indonesian and even international partners. One of them is with Green School Bali! Over the past two weeks, I had a chance to visit Green School and had a wonderful discussion with the teacher and the students.

I have met Mr. Driver (the teacher) and the two students (Gusde and Tirta) two years ago at our Student Symposium in 2019 which was also part of The 4th Sustainability & Resilience Workshop. We remembered exactly how the discussion went during the event. At that event, we invited local and international schools in Bali, to discuss with policymakers and researchers. We were really impressed by the questions from Green School Students. Little did I know, I was going to start working with them.

Last Friday, I went to Green School to discuss an upcoming event collaboration. Mr. Driver, Gusde, Tirta, and I discussed a lot from the agenda of the event until the tools that can support our program. The more I discuss with them, the more I realize that information, technology, teaching, and learning methods are growing so fast. I met wonderful kids in front of me with thousands of information and ideas in their heads.

Meanwhile, I also have thoughts about the schools’ facilities in Indonesia. On my last meeting with Mr. Driver, I got a chance to have a small chat about this issue. As we experienced together, we found that there is a...big gap between the international schools and Indonesian public/private schools. I can see from the QnA session, the way the students delivered a suggestion, asked questions, up to the confidence level of one school to another school were different.

I found more things that I can compare with mine. Even though it was not international, but I have the privilege to experience and study in a private school. If I compare with my friends who went to international schools, of course, they will get a global mindset and experience. During the studies, they will also get more global information, network/connection, and international learning which allow them to build critical thinking skills and confidence.

Then, I said to Mr. Driver: I saw that everything was growing so fast, those students from international schools are crazy fast and they got support from parents or school if they want to do anything such as campaigns or projects. Then, what happens with the local school students? I believe there are so many brilliant students in local schools. But, do they get a good curriculum or facility? Or even support? How is the education system here? Is there any traineeship program for teachers? Does the school or the curriculum committee even know about this situation?

I felt so sad about this situation. Mr. Driver then said that’s why we are here. Green School with KulKul Farm has a community called KulKul Connection that gives school visits and education to students of local schools in Bali. Hopefully, we can be a part of this connection soon.

The big bureaucracy of this country may be one of the issues why the education system for local schools is developing slowly. Fortunately, there are many small initiatives. I also had a chance to talk and have a discussion with the founder of MALU DONG Community. They have a purpose to make Bali clean again by giving education to schools about waste management. The founder said, the students from local schools have limited access to quality educational activities, that’s why we’re there.

This is also still our homework to help locals to have a good education.

So, have you done volunteering somewhere and teach local people? Please share in the comments!

I will share with you next week about su-re.connect. See you and have a great day!