What's going on with Sumba Education?

Education is one of ways to improve the quality of human life, even education becomes one of the indicators of achievement in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2020. Education does not talk only schools, but also the way to educate children at home, schools and community as communal responsibilities. Indonesia as an archipelagic country with more than 254 million people, has many challenges to educate its population with quality facilities and teachers in each region. It should be admitted that the quality of education in outer islands is still low because of the limitations of teachers and facilities.

Sumba as one of the outer islands in Indonesia, has a such condition with all limitations so that, there is a decrease of children's interest to continue their education to higher level, especially women, for economic reason and other reasons. East Sumba regency itself needs to increase the quantity and quality of education services in order to respond the needs of the community. The data of school distribution showed that from 22 sub-districts in East Sumba, 11 sub-districts do not have kindergarten and 5 sub-districts do not have high school/vocational school. Data on school participation in the age range of 7-24 showed that 27% of the population or around 21.000 residents do not continue their education and most of them are women (East Sumba in number, BPS East Sumba, 2017). This is a major challenge for East Sumba regency to provide educational services for the people and ensure them to continue their study.

This situation encourages Stube-HEMAT Sumba, an institution mentoring students and church youth in Sumba to hold a training on Education with a theme "What's going on with Sumba Education?" At GKS Okanggapi, the branch of GKS Umamapu (13-15/09/19). Thirty-two students from campuses and communities in East Sumba, such as Ukriswina, STT Terpadu, STT GKS, Akper, IKPML and Ana Tana community, enthusiastically attended training to find out education problems in Sumba and its analysis, formulating activities to promote education in remote villages, connecting stakeholders in education field, find information to access scholarships and non-formal education or strategies to deal with education problems in Sumba.

Oscar A. Djara, a practitioner at the Adjarmanu Foundation, an institution that focuses on education in Waingapu, East Sumba, explained the challenges and obstacles in managing education in Sumba, especially in remote areas that are difficult to reach, the location of schools far from residential areas, lack of transportation to schools and lack of Strata 1 graduated teacher committed to teaching. In general, the teachers prefer teaching in cities with higher salaries, while public awareness of the importance of education is still low.

"This must be realized by young people so that the next generation does not have the wrong perspective on education, people think that education is only for those who are economically capable, and this causes many children drop out of school. Please change such a perspective. All must go to school," he stressed.

Yusuf Waluwanja, M.Sc, the head of Education Office of East Sumba regency, presented material of the description of education in East Sumba and the government's strategic steps in overcoming problems of educational facilities and personnel. He revealed the government's way to improve the quality of education in the remote area of East Sumba, by building schools, opening parallel schools and improving teachers through education and training.

As a breakthrough in overcoming the problem of education in Sumba, the manager of Hamu Wangu Reading group, Ferlyn Paramba was invited to this training with a topic of building a reading space to build intelligent people. The presence of reading groups support the early child development and gives them an understanding of education in gentle and friendly manner so that young children understand and are not awkward in learning. “If young students are involved in teaching, they must be smart and creative, so that children do not get bored," she said.

One of the trainees, Kristiani Pedi revealed her experience accompanying children's learning, "Because I have an interest in early childhood education, so I also learned it. I found different character of each child, so in this training I was motivated to initiate learning groups for children, especially characters, because if they learn good manner now, they will know the benefit in the future," she said.

Youth and teachers are required to understand education and right strategies used in teaching, especially for children at early age. Furthermore, youth is expected to be an active actor of education, especially in rural areas and to be good example for their students, the generation that will be the backbone of this country. (Naomi, Vebiati, Ina)