Rebuilding education in tsunami-ravaged Aceh

Rebuilding education in tsunami-ravaged Aceh

Mochtar Buchori, Jakarta

When will children in Aceh be able to continue their education
again?

This is a question that has been troubling many people in the
country. To be sure, everyone agrees that educational facilities
in the devastated province must be rehabilitated as soon as
possible; but everyone familiar with conditions on the field in
Aceh agrees that the obstacles hindering such an effort are
almost insurmountable. Some people thus wonder whether it is not
a bit too early to ask this question.

The question is timely; it might be too early to make a final
decision about how education in Aceh should be rebuilt. An
erroneous decision or one taken in haste might jeopardize the
younger generation's future in their efforts to meet the
challenges of life with the full use of their mental and
emotional faculties.

In addition, the prevailing tendency to simply restore the old
educational system and methods might not be sufficient to raise
the children of Aceh into independent and cognizant adults. The
vision underlying the current public demand for rebuilding Aceh
is for a new Aceh to emerge from its current catastrophe -- one
that "will remember nature's lessons long after they might seem
irrelevant".

With this perspective in mind, it would be wise to watch
ongoing attempts to rebuild education in Aceh as closely as
possible and to learn from them.

Operational decisions on Aceh's educational rehabilitation
should be made gradually -- it is the basic foundation, the
philosophical design, that must be established clearly and
definitively from the very beginning.

One possible model appears in a Kompas report on Wednesday,
Jan. 5, that in the area of Mata Ie, Aceh Besar district,
volunteers of the Baitul Muamalat group conducted a sing-and-
learn program -- a form of therapeutic education -- in which at
least 120 refugee children took part.

The Jakarta Post reported on the same day a similar activity
was conducted by Kak Seto, Chairman of the National Commission
for Child Protection, at the Ujong Batee refugee camp just
outside Banda Aceh. Fifty children took part in Kak Seto's
program, most of whom had lost their parents.

What these two groups have been doing is admittedly not
traditional education, and is closer to therapy. In singing and
playing as a group, the children are guided by their teacher-
therapist to release their anxieties and fears.

No fixed program nor standard curriculum exists for this kind
of education. However, these impromptu programs provide
"education" in the truest sense of the word: The children are
guided in their struggles to come to terms with the hardships
they have encountered in their altered lives. These sessions
serve to guide them toward accepting the new realities of their
lives, and are supported as they set out in search for a new
future.

Needless to say, the number of children served by these two
volunteer groups is but a tiny fraction of the 60,000 to 70,000
children spread across 95 refugee camps in Aceh who need
immediate assistance to resume their studies. It is feared that,
without proper education, these thousands of pre-teen to teenaged
children will not be able to prevail in facing the tremendous
difficulties that lie ahead.

Furthermore, this kind of "emergency" education is only
temporary, and it must be replaced with a more conventional form
of education.

It is this process of developing and sustaining a format for
emergency education, guiding its transition to conventional
education, and defining the "final" educational format to be
applied in Aceh that requires careful consideration.

In light of this facility, one might ask whether more of these
emergency education centers should not be set up before we move
on to more conventional schooling. The answer is definitely yes,
but again, this should be done with great care.

A clearly defined set of requisite standards must be
established in order for such emergency intervention centers can
be opened. Putting aside their operational aspects, if their main
function is to carry out educational activities that are
primarily therapeutic, then the selection of teacher-therapists
is of vital importance.

Admittedly, while it would be difficult to find teachers like
Kak Seto Mulyadi with formal qualifications, it is possible to
find teachers who can quickly pick up the fundamentals of this
kind of job.

From my limited experience in working with emotionally
distressed students, I would say that such students need a
compassionate teacher in whom they can find a friend.

An effective teacher-therapist will provide a feeling of
security among traumatized students as they struggle emotionally
and psychologically to adjust to their new lives. They want to
feel that they are being understood and being guided, and that
they are not alone in their painful journey toward an uncertain
future.

Opening new emergency centers without screening the quality
and character of its teacher-therapists is hazardous to students'
academic and personal growth.

The writer has a doctorate of education from Harvard
University.