Tota Oceanna, a Kartini Who Brings School for Poor Children to Timor Island

Through intensive communication, the trust of the students’ parents was built, ultimately leading to 100 selected students willing to step out from the isolation of their villages. Jakarta (ANTARA) - The seriousness and leadership of Tota in the process of bringing a national education programme to alleviate poverty in Kupang Regency, East Nusa Tenggara, can serve as a reflection of the spirit of struggle by women as exemplified by RA Kartini in the past. As Head of the Efata Centre of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Tota Oceanna Zonneveld has taken a crucial role as one of the main driving forces behind the People’s Junior High School (SRMP) 19 Kupang. SRMP 19 Kupang is one of the first 100 pioneering People’s Schools to be built nationally in 2025. Meanwhile, this free boarding school for children from poor and extremely poor families utilises a 12-hectare centre, which is a technical implementation unit of the Ministry of Social Affairs in Naibonat, Kupang Regency, East Nusa Tenggara. Tota, in that process, ensured that all programme designs could run smoothly when everything started from scratch, all for the desire that children from the most vulnerable families receive dignified education rights. Tota’s contributions go beyond ordinary administrative duties. Since the intensive preparation period from February to June 2025, she, along with the staff of the Efata Centre and the Kupang Regency Social Service, have worked hard to compile a supporting ecosystem for the school. The scope of her work is very broad; from leading the strict screening of prospective students in remote villages to providing technical training for guardians, teachers, and educational staff. Most of them are new civil servants with PPPK status, and they will serve in this new education programme, thus still requiring training. It was exhausting, all done in limited time. The training alone was conducted in less than four months until the new academic year began in July. Fortunately, thanks to Tota’s guidance and strict supervision, the school’s management is now well-established, allowing SRMP 19 to operate stably under the leadership of a principal who previously handled special education by the Ministry of Social Affairs in Jakarta. This strategic step stems from the thinking that breaking the chain of poverty cannot be achieved merely through consumable social assistance. Interventions must address the root problems through strengthening human quality. The urgency of the People’s School in Kupang is clearly recorded in data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) as of April 2026, where the poverty rate in Kupang Regency reaches 20.32 percent, a figure far disproportionate to the national average of 8.57 percent. This economic reality intertwines with the high number of school dropouts at the primary and junior high level, trapping tens of thousands of children, making the presence of SRMP 19 a beacon of new hope. Tota’s dedication was truly tested when she had to scour prospective students amid the challenging terrain of Timor Island, with air temperatures reaching 33 degrees Celsius. From around 10,000 children from underprivileged families, she led the screening to find the first 100 individuals most in need of intervention. This process was not a desk job; Tota carried out the instructions of Social Minister Saifullah Yusuf to net children from poor families so they could attend school. She deployed the best team to visit 14 sub-districts, with distances far across remote islands, to verify prospective student data with the actual family conditions on the ground. Even almost every day for a full five months, she had to be actively involved in national coordination meetings for the operational preparation of the People’s Schools. The accuracy of student data, which must truly be in need, became one of the mandates from the government to every centre head, besides matters of readiness of facilities, infrastructure, health, and nutritional intake for prospective students.