Course helps students catch up after tsunami

Course helps students catch up after tsunami

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

Fahrul Agus has spent the last six weeks taking part in a course
designed to help him and other Acehnese students make up for the
classroom time they lost as a result of the tsunami.

All of the hard work and hours of study over the last six
weeks paid off for the student at SMU 4 high school in Banda
Aceh.

Before the free course, the 17-year-old Fahrul scored 50 out
of a possible 100 on a practice national exam. After the course,
he had raised his score to 75.

"I want to get accepted to the School of Engineering at
Unsyiah (Syiah Kuala University)," he told The Jakarta Post.

It has not been easy for Fahrul. The Dec. 26 tsunami took away
his mother, leaving him and his younger brother, who is in junior
high school, on their own. His father passed away before the
tsunami tore through the province. The two brothers are now
living with relatives.

Fahrul is determined to continue his education, scavenging
through the debris left behind by the tsunami for anything he can
sell to pay his school fees.

"I want to help rebuild Aceh," he said shyly.

Some 1,500 junior high school and high school students in
Banda Aceh were selected to take part in these free courses
organized by the Sampoerna Foundation.

"The courses will help the students catch up following the
tsunami, and help them pass the national examination and
university entrance tests," said Sapto Handoyo Sakti,
communications director for the foundation.

At the end of six weeks, the students had made significant
progress.

"On the first exam, the students scored an average of 46.3.
But these score improved to 69.7," Handoyo said in Banda Aceh.

The courses were held in four locations in Banda Aceh: SMU 1
and SMU 3 high schools, SMK 2 vocational school and SMP 7 junior
high school.

In organizing the courses, the foundation worked with the
province's education office and the Jakarta-based Nurul Fikri
Foundation, which trained the teachers for the program.

Sampoerna, which spent about Rp 400 million (US$42,105) on the
program, plans to hold similar courses for teachers in Aceh. The
foundation will cooperate with several non-governmental
organizations and Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh to
organize the courses.

According to the head of the Banda Aceh Education Agency,
Ramli Rasyid, the city lost many teachers, students and school
buildings in the tsunami.

"Currently, some 800 teachers and 21,000 students are still
living in refugee shelters," Ramli said.

The tsunami damaged 178 school buildings in Banda Aceh and
totally destroyed another 69 buildings.

Of the 3,664 teachers in the city, the tsunami killed 1,006,
both civil servants and contract teachers.

The disaster also killed over 20,000 students in the city.
Only about 50,000 students survived the tsunami.

The national final examination for high school and junior high
school students will be held on May 30 across the country, except
in Aceh, where no date has been set for the test.

"I just hope that we are not left too far behind other
students in the country," said Dewi Fujiarti, 17, a student at
SMU 4 high school.