Irian Jaya's Amungme led to literacy in Banti school

By Catur Budihantoro J.

TIMIKA, Irian Jaya (JP): While formal education in other parts of Indonesia is advancing, it has just begun in Banti village, about 80 kilometers north of here.

A lot of credit for this must go to Stefanus Kamo. The 55-year-old civil servant has lead the Amungme, one of Irian Jaya's 250 tribes, to literacy.

Since the outset, Kamo, who hails from Paniai-Nabire, elsewhere in Irian Jaya, has had to work hard. Local people initially rejected his presence.

"Well, I have been teaching here for more than eight years. I was unmarried when I came here," Kamo recalls, saying that living among the Amungme is his life now.

"I have been committed to fostering local people to pursue useful knowledge. So, why should I surrender?" says Kamo, a graduate of a Dutch school in Paniai.

"Imagine you have to walk through dense forest for several days. Ten years ago, passing through the forest was no big deal for me," Kamo said courageously. "I had to trek on foot, had enough food for several days and, very often, the trip to Banti was dangerous."

About 150 families of the Amungme tribe live in Banti. They resettled there more than 50 years ago. Until recent years, they knew little about modern education.

"They are simple people who know nothing about the world outside their community. They use the slash-and-burn farming system, plant tubers and sugarcane and breed pigs."

"I cooperated with the tribal chiefs to introduce my programs," he recalls. "They were cooperative because they knew I was a government official."

Kamo's description of the difficulty of introducing an Indonesian education to the tribe was confirmed by the Amungme people who have benefited from his mission.

Peter Magay, for example, an Amungme man who has just graduated from Banti elementary school, said local people did not like newcomers. Now Magay is among the few Amungme working in a private company in Timika.

"I must thank Mr. Kamo for showing us the way to a better future through education," enthused Magay, while admitting there were many challenges ahead. He estimated only about 20 percent of his tribe had undergone any formal schooling.

Initially, the school stopped at the third grade.

Now, things have changed. In 1996, the school went up to the sixth grade, like regular elementary school elsewhere in the country. This year, according to Kamo, the Banti elementary school will conduct a second exam, and more graduates are expected to continue their studies at junior high school in Timika.

Kamo estimated about half of those who finish their elementary education will not go on to further studies because they could not afford it.

According to Kamo, most parents are too poor to support their children through junior high school. They hope their children find work and earn enough to finance their studies themselves.

"When students are on school holidays, they usually help their parents make money. They harvest tuber roots and sell them to other areas. Sometimes, they pack them in sacks and sell them in Timika," Magay said.

Red cassava, sugarcane and pigs are the most common source of income. These are staple foods for the tribe. But lack of roads restricts the selling of produce to other regions. "There is a traditional market, but it does not help much," Kamo said.

The Amungme first came to know about formal education through Christian missionaries. The missionaries would have to learn the local language to communicate with the tribespeople. Since then more and more Amungme have realized the need for schooling.

"Teaching through religious approaches is not enough. Admittedly, few of them were able to read. So the tribal chiefs permitted people to learn to read and write. You can imagine how the priest trekked up and down the jungle to convey the words of God and introduce literacy," Kamo said.

Since the priest could not come regularly, his aide had an idea: He opened his living room for people wishing to gather and learn to read and write.

It was Kamo who proposed that the local government provide funds for education. When the money started coming through, he cooperated with the tribal chief to build a school building with four classrooms.

In the 1980s, the school began to receive support from the community. Many children came and registered to study. They came from the three villages of Upikawa, Utikini and Banti.

Some volunteers have stayed and devote themselves to sharing their knowledge and living among the Amungme people as teachers. One of them is Timotius Beanal, who was once one of Kamo's pupils. Some of them have been teaching there since 1986.

Beanal says the Banti school has done a great service in opening the locals' horizons and changing the way they see outsiders.

The school building, renovated in 1997, now has two stories with, eight rooms and 200 students. It also has six teachers from other provinces.

Children aged between seven and 12 can register with the school for the first grade.

"They do not care about their age. However, they will have problems if they want to continue their studies at junior high school, because age limits exist there," said Beanal.

The money needed to finance the renovation of the school was obtained from a private company's contribution, which was paid through the local government. The local government channeled it to the Amungme-Komoro foundation, or AMOR, a non-governmental organization.

The AMOR foundation actively raises funds to help the poor Banti school students who want to continue their studies after elementary school.

Transportation is no longer a big problem. The private company has made a good road.

"Ten years ago it took days to go to Timika, but now it is only a four hour drive," said Magai, the leader of AMOR.