The village of Serempah is inhabited with 115 households. In the village, there is one primary school that accommodates 47 students, 4 teachers, and a principal. And one of the teachers has provided me with this information. Looking back at the 3R documentation of the school several years ago, I learned that there had been development going on with the school building. However, the school is still deprived of the necessary facilities for the teachers and the students.
For a week, my visit has made me aware that education in rural parts of Aceh Tengah still needs major attention. A lot of children are still facing difficulty in reading. I don’t know whether it is because of the deficit attention from the teachers or the hole that was not filled by the family. I became aware of this fact after playing and learning alongside the children of Serempah. And it really reminded me of my time in elementary school. Back then, a student would not be able to advance to higher education when he/she can’t do the proper reading.
Learning about the education system here only led me to confusion. It is contradicting with what I remembered. The children here can still move forward to the higher grade even without any knowledge of reading.
Aside from this problem, we carried out some interesting activities for our Dream Library Program. The volunteers were really trying their best so that the end results could match our expectations. One of those expectations was to boost the local children’s motivation in learning.
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As a 3R volunteer, I am hoping that the existence of the Dream Library Program could always benefit the children in learning and get them closer to the wonderful Dream Teachers as well as help them to stay motivated in learning especially reading.
I am also hoping that everyone could understand their responsibility in this education chain because education has become the shared responsibility of the Department of Education, the teachers, the parents and also us.
Written by Ario Adli