Anita Rachman

Teachers have said that schools in remote areas of Indonesia face a number of challenges. (Photo: JG)

Child Drinking Just One of Many Challenges Facing Indonesia's Remote Schools

Tarakan, East Kalimantan. Encouraging students to come to school might be a common problem for teachers, but trying to stop their elementary school charges from drinking alcohol is another challenge entirely.

Cultural tensions as well as a lack of facilities, skill development and government support were just some of the issues identified by teachers from remote areas during a training event held in Tarakan by the Tanoto Foundation on Tuesday.

Yuluis Labo, 52, the principal of Sesayap Elementary School 08 in Tana Tidung district — around a three-hour speedboat ride from Tarakan — said that he and his fellow teachers at the school were trying to stop their students from drinking pengasih, a local alcohol made from mashed and fermented cassava that is sometimes also mixed with vodka.

“There are many problems in my school. Besides encouraging teachers to make daily teaching plans, we have many students that sometimes consume alcohol,” Yulius said. “They drink it because their parents say that it is one of the traditions of Dayak Brusu and almost all of my students come from the tribe.”

He said that there are 68 students at his school, aged between seven and 13 years old, under the supervision of six permanent teachers. He said that many of his students often skipped classes or were absent because they were drunk.

“Drinking pengasih is a tradition, and my students say that if they don’t drink it they are disrespecting the tradition,” he said.

Yulius said that pengasih was served on many occasions, such as during planting and harvest festivities and burial ceremonies. He said that parents asked their children to join the drinking sessions.

“Can you imagine? They are only elementary school students. After joining a party, they sometimes come to school in a bad condition: a bit drunk, sleepy and unable to concentrate,” he said.

Yulius, who has been the leader of the school since 2004, said that he has tried to talk to the students, but could not persuade them to give up drinking. He said that teachers needed approach the students calmly and talk to their parents in an appropriate manner.

The school has been trying to locate several members of the tribe who have relatively good educational backgrounds, such as those who have graduated high school, to explain that it is not good for people, especially children, to drink the traditional alcohol.

“But it’s not easy, we also need teachers who understand this. It’s not easy to be a teacher in my area,” he said.

Zulkifli, a teacher at Sekatak State Senior High School 01, located 290 kilometers from Tarakan, said he and his colleagues were facing a similar dilemma.

However, Zulkifli said that the problem had been worse in the past.

“In 1998 it was even worse. Students got drunk and we could hardly even warn them,” he said.

Zulkifli said that he and the teachers at both his current school and previous school, Sekatak State Junior High School 01, had tried several ways to combat the problem. He said that approaching parents was crucial.

Inviting parents to come to the school to receive their child’s semester reports provided a good opportunity for discussion, he said.

“But things still happen, it’s hard."

Anita Lie, a professor from Widya Mandala Catholic University in Surabaya, East Java, and a supervisor at the training session, said that being a teacher in a remote area was not the same as working in the city.

She said that teachers often not only face educational challenges, but also cultural ones.

“That is why giving pre-training to teachers before they are sent to remote areas is very important. The government must pay more attention to teachers in remote areas,” Anita said.

However, Anita stated that culture was not static and it could change. She said that teachers should firstly understand the local culture before agreeing with or opposing it.

“There should be empathy. Don’t ask students to go against their parents or tradition, use the right approach,” she said.

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