Yogya Kids, a mother-made school

Yogya Kids, a mother-made school

Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

The sounds of a gamelan orchestra that were heard in the distance sounded a bit strange, but after listening for a while, one would recognize it as a basic melody that is usually played by beginners.

Indeed, several kindergarten children -- some were foreigners, the others locals -- sat on the floor intent on following what was told by their instructor.

The children were playing gendhing Palaran with small-sized gamelan instruments, specially designed for children. They were earnestly practicing Javanese traditional music, something that is quite uncommon among children nowadays in Yogyakarta even though the town is known as a center of Javanese culture.

Welcome to Yogya Kids, a kindergarten and a playgroup, located in the southern part of Yogyakarta. The school -- that used to be exclusively for expatriate children living in Yogyakarta -- has developed into an international school, with a strong focus on local culture.

Take a look at the activities of these preschoolers. In classes they learn how to make jajan pasar (traditional snacks), how to play karawitan (Javanese traditional music) and how to perform traditional dances. The school even invites a snake charmer and a bee tamer to the school as guest speakers. And like other modern schools, the children also learn about computers.

"Honestly, we adopt the learning programs from many sources. But we don't copy any of them. We make our own programs for the children," said Selly Sagita, the school advisor.

The school currently has 80 students, 15 of them expatriates. The initiative to set up the school in 1996 originated from informal meetings between expatriates and wives of expatriates living in the city who felt the need to have a place for their children to play and to study.

At that time Yogyakarta did not have an international school.

"To overcome the situation, every week we met and took our children to play with other children at the house of one of the group. We took turns to host the meeting. If I am not mistaken, there were up to 25 children. And some of us acted as the tutor," said Selly, who joined a student exchange program in Canada when she was a university student.

From their discussions, it was agreed to set up a school for preschoolers. Initially the activities were held at a warehouse that had been modified for the purpose. Selly provided the equipment while some mothers volunteered as tutors. Yogya Kids developed well and found its character.

"In its development, there were many public figures in Yogyakarta who sent their children here. And now, most of those who send their children here are university lecturers."

"Even though it looks successful, I still donate a lot of money for Yogya Kids. So, we plan to increase the school fees starting next year, otherwise, I will keep suffering losses," she said without mentioning how much she donates to the kindergarten every month.

"Basically it is a visionary project. It's OK if I have to suffer some losses," she said.

Each of the kindergarten children is charged Rp 150,000 a month, while those who join the playgroup pay Rp 175,000 each.

The children receive snacks, stationery and raw ingredients to cook with. They also get a free health examination and are entitled to join extra-curricular activities. All of the teaching staff are university graduates who are experts in their field. For example, the gamelan teacher is a graduate of the Indonesian Arts Institute of Yogyakarta.

Yogya Kids also invites people with special skills like the snake charmer or the bee tamer. They come to the school with the animals so that the children can have a first-hand experience.

The children really enjoy such activities. They also had a lot of fun when the school invited a barongsay (Chinese lion dance) group to perform at the school recently and allowed the children to join the dance.

In order to help the children develop love for the local culture, the school management has decorated the walls with pictures of the characters from the wayang (shadow puppet) tradition instead of those of the Disneyland or other foreign figures.

"We make illustrations like Punokawan (the funny characters in wayang) so that they are familiar with them," said Selly, who used to be a high school teacher.

Even though it uses local materials, as an international school, Yogya Kids provides intensive English lessons for the children. They have a special English class for 30 minutes a week and every day the teachers also speak English with the children so that the children are familiar with the language.

That's Yogya Kids, an alternative, international school that also fosters the local culture.