Pulau Padang lies in the Meranti Islands regency in the Riau province of Indonesia. At 60km long and 29km wide it is the third largest island of the area, and boasts an estimated 47 370 inhabitants.
Wan Amrizal is one of the original residents of Pulau Padang, and has worked hard to become a teacher after graduating high school so that he can, in turn, give back to his community. He feels that the people of Padang Islands have a passion and hunger for learning, and would be able to thrive given the opportunity to learn. However, the inabilities of the teachers to provide information in an effective manner, and the teaching methods used, are a large obstacle that needs to be overcome first.
When the Tanoto Foundation, founded by Indonesian business man and philanthropist Sukanto Tanoto and his family, started the Pelita Guru Mandiri program in 2015, Wan was eager to join. During the training, he learnt about contextual learning, which taught him how to incorporate everyday experiences in his lessons in the classroom. The result of this teaching method is that students become more interactive, which makes it easier for them to absorb new information.
The Pelita Guru Mandiri Program
The Pelita Guru Mandiri program was created by the Tanoto Foundation to improve teacher’s competence and their qualifications. Here they are trained in children development, implementing contextual learning, classroom management and collaborative teacher and student learning. This is hoped to make their teaching methods less rigid and traditional, and to encourage the students to be more involved in the learning process.
The teachers trained directly by the Foundation’s facilitators and complete the program, are given the option to become facilitators themselves to spread their newly gained knowledge and teaching skills to other teachers in their area.
Currently Wan spends his mornings teaching at SDN 4 Mekar Delima, after which he spends his time lecturing in various other educational institutions which he has founded, as appointed local facilitator of the Pelita Guru Mandiri program in Pulau Padang.
Learn more at http://www.sateri.com/sukanto-tanoto/