REPORT ON SCHOOLS ON WEST COAST SUMATRA (NIAS SIMEULUE AND LOKRUET, ACEH) POST TSUNAMI AND EARTHQUAKE

Objective : To survey damage to school buildings, meet students and parents and identify teachers. After negotiations with community, erect temporary school tents and provide basic school materials. Participate and facilitate the commencement of classes with local Indonesian teachers.

Process: Julie Janson, a teacher and university lecturer from Australia volunteered to join the ELM to assist in restarting schools in damaged towns and villages in the ELM footprint area on the West coast. The teacher often went to the villages and towns with the medical team and she began an appraisal of the school's needs. As people gathered to attend the clinic, Julie would set up a tarpaulin on the ground and commence teaching English, art or maths. Children and parents would gather and take part in the impromptu classes. Julie speaks basic bahasa Indonesian and quickly developed a rapport with students and parents.



After the two to three hour long class, Julie would ask to meet the local teacher. Often the response was that the teachers had fled and were refugees in the mountains. In some cases, teachers arrived and were introduced to Julie. Discussions about school needs proceeded and ELM would arrange for two large Red Cross tents per school to be delivered from the Batavia. Volunteers from ELM and the local community then erected the tents. Tarpaulins were also provided from AusAid and other donors.

The tarpaulins were placed on the ground in the tents and black boards, some desks and a teacher's chair were rescued from the rubble of the school building. Class could now commence with the local teacher or a temporary volunteer teacher from the village. In some cases, ELM volunteers would return to the village the next day and were delighted to see fifty or so children in their school uniforms sitting in their classes working.



Assessment of outcomes: The process of delivering some classes to students as a visiting teacher has merit because it encourages both the students, parents and teachers that life can get back to some kind of normal activity. Once the students experience a class atmosphere and realize that the tent is safe from earthquakes, if it falls down no-one will really get hurt. The tent schools are usually on the school playground so the school environment is familiar and the students know that they can safely attend. The students were very frightened when after shocks rocked the ground while Julie taught class, but her reaction of calm and the reaction of parents reassured the students that they could go on learning.

Temporary tent schools are a method of getting the schools started. The building of new schools should be a priority for Indonesian authorities with an emphasis on earthquake resistant buildings made of steel and wood and plastic, not concrete!

There is a lack of school supplies in all schools visited. ELM needs supplies on board the Batavia to distribute: writing books, pens, pencils, paints, paper, scissors, Indonesian reading books and all subject area texts.

Psychological healing: The community healing that takes place in the simple commencement of school is inspiring. Instead of fear and hopeless expressions the ELM were greeted with cheers and appreciation. The children were smiling and taking pride in their accomplishments of singing, drawing, reading, writing and maths.


School locations:
30/3/05 Lokruet in West coast Aceh. This school had already had a tent erected by other aid organizations (Obor Berkat and Child Fund. After one week there were desks and seats built by the community in a work for pay project. ELM contributed schools supplies such as writing books, pencils, pens and paints. Julie also taught in the school in a team with the local teachers over two days. There were 30-40 children attending the school mostly of primary and infants age group. A proposal for ongoing funding of the school was forwarded from ELM to Jack Shultz in USA.

The earthquake (28th March) centred on Simulue and Nias. The ELM went to the island of Simeulu. A survey from Sinabang revealed many schools destroyed but many NGOs were already focusing on educational rebuilding there.



7/4/05 ELM arrived in West Simeulu . The Salong area and Simeulu Tenga was highlighted by the Bupati in Sinabang as needing attention. Palau Tupa is an island 3hrs sailing from Sinabang. The concrete school building is badly damaged. Julie taught English and maths in the morning. A tent school was set up and the local teacher was delighted to start teaching in the afternoon. Approximately 30 students attended the temporary class room. The reported number of children needing school was over a hundred.

11/4/05 ELM reached the town of Kampung Air. This is a big town with five schools. ELM provided two tents to two schools and a further one tent to the Muslim school and another to a village school five kilometers out of town.
Each school had approximately 200 students. School had not commenced when ELM left the area but there was assurances from teachers that school would begin the following Monday. School materials such as pens books and paper were distributed to a number of teachers.

12/4/05 ELM arrived in Gunongsitoli, Nias . The schools were badly damaged and no obvious sign of UNICEF tents or commencement of outdoor classes. There was rubble everywhere and chaos.

13/4/05 ELM reached South West Nias . We assessed the flooded fishing village of Ono Limbu. People here were very hungry, the land had sunk 3 metres. Some school buildings were damaged, but the school was not operating. Two school tents were erected and a teacher (who was utterly terrible and turned out to be a pretend teacher) worked alongside Julie to teach English to 40 students. The real teacher commenced teaching the next day with children in their uniforms and much relief and joy.

Follow up: On Julie's return to Medan she met with Tengku Silvana Sinar the Co ordinator of the Departmen Pendidikan Nasional Kopertis Wilayah and Michael Fay from Aseanfocus Group. Silvana is the head of private education in Sumatra. She was interested to be briefed on the situation in Nias and Simuelu and Aceh. The reconstruction of the teachers College in Gunongsitoli was one of her priorities. The issue of earthquake proof buildings was discussed.

Also student scholarships for those effected by the tsunami and earthquake. There was a follow up meeting between Julie Janson, Michael Fay and the Deputy Head of the Education Department in Sumatra. He was interested in ELM’s activities and contacted Rick Cameron to ask for assistance in distributing school materials and possibly tents. The deputy assured Julie that tents and school packs of materials had been distributed by UNICEF and Save the Children Fund . Unfortunately, Julie had not come across any of these items in her one month of work on ELM.

Proposed Long Term Follow Up:
Julie Janson and ELM to undertake 2x14 day assessment of island community educational infrastructure from Sabang to Padang.

Co-operating Agencies
Governor's Office North Sumatra.
Provincial Education Department North Sumatra
Departemen Pendidikan Nasional Kopertis Wilayah, Medan
Provincial Education Department West Sumatra
Provincial Education Department NAD

Focus Areas
Physical Infrastructure
Resources
Teacher Training
Curriculum development

Proposed Funding Agency
Aus Aid

Team
Deni Purba; Julie Janson MA, BA, BVis A Dip Ed;
Michael Fay MEd, BA, Dip Ed(International Education Consultant)