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SARMI: Armed with spears and bows, a group of local children in the coastal village of Sarmi, in the remote eastern Indonesian province of Papua, gather every afternoon at the seaside.
Decked out in colourful feather hats and long green grass skirts, they may look as if they are playing at tribal war. But they are actually learning simple maths and basic language skills in preparation for starting school - in an effort to combat low literacy levels.
These children are enrolled in an early education program that blends local culture with traditional subjects to make it relevant to their lives. Prior to this, many were taken out of school because it didn't seem meaningful to their parents.
Now, spears and bows are used to train them how to hunt and defend themselves, with betel nuts and papayas used as a way of easing them into more conventional school subjects.
“Students who went to this school before elementary school were more active in the class compared to others who did not join the preschool,” said Absalom Abuere, a teacher in Sarmi, some 120 km from the provincial capital of Jayapura.
Papua province has the lowest literacy levels among school-aged children in Indonesia, government figures show, with only 75 per cent literate compared to 91 per cent nationally.
The Sekolah Kampung Sarmi was established in 2007 with the help of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), as well as UNDP funding, aiming to prepare pre-school children to enter formal schools. It now has 54 pupils, who attend for free.
The school specifically employs traditional local tools as their main learning kit in order to establish some kind of link to the pupils' parents, such as using betel nuts - the chewing of which is popular in Papua.
Against the backdrop of Sarmi's white sand beach, the children gather in a circle to play with betel nuts as a teacher stands in front of them, using the nuts to introduce the concept of numbers and counting. After the lesson, the parents collect the nuts and start chewing them.
Other “lessons” teach the concept of shapes and angles.
To familiarise children with the formal classrooms they'll face during their school years, teachers use both conventional rooms as well as outdoor settings, calling pupils up to the front of the room to help nurture confidence.
Parents are also involved in learning activities to help them appreciate education, such as being given reading materials about farming and fishing while they wait outside their children's classrooms.
Thanks to this approach, many parents in the village are now beginning to support education.
“I hope authorities in district government, the provincial government and even the central government pay more attention to our school... because it plays a very important role for children's education,” said Elizer Oista.
His son, five-year-old Fransiskus Keda Oista, attends the school, and says that maths are his favourite subject. But educators have their work cut out for them.
Along with the poor literacy levels, Papua also has Indonesia's highest poverty rates. More than 30 per cent of its population lives below the poverty line, more than double the national average of 13 per cent.
As a result, lessons also include basic life skills such as cleaning teeth and how to use soap.
“This school helps us in the fight against illiteracy in Sarmi,” said Faustinus Sesire, an education activist. “We are grateful for it.”
