Project Citizen: Praktik Belajar Kewarganegaraan – Kami Bangsa Indonesia, a pre and post-service training in a post-conflict, post-disaster area of Banda Aceh,
22 – 24 August 2006
One female participant reads 'Kami Bangsa Indonesia' book Highlights
- Training for established and new teachers in a post conflict, post disaster area
- 20 teachers and 25 student teachers (will be teaching next year trained)
- First year potential 1500 Muhammadiyah students trained in KBI
- Second year potential of 4000 or more students trained
- Cooperative funding - Muhammadiyah University paid for accomodation and meals
Banda Aceh is located on the nortern tip of Sumatra
Personal Perspective (Reni–Program Coordinator CCE Indonesia) On May 26, 2006, Shadli Komara, one of the CCE Consultants, and I went to Banda Aceh to meet with some potential partners in holding Project Citizen: Kami Bangsa Indonesia training. CCE Indonesia tried to make an effort to improve the quality of life of civic education, in order to give residents the skills to participate in a newly democratic society. Among those potential partners, we saw that Muhammadiyah University was the most cooperative one. They agreed to provide CCE training with meals and a hall for 50 participants. In addition, they were really pleased to have the cooperation with CCE since they thought that by using this active learning the teachers would get an innovative method in teaching the students how to be good citizens.
After holding trainings from one place to another place in Indonesia, I found that Banda Aceh is a very conservative area in which they tried to apply the Islamic law strictly. When I was there, I was told to wear 'jilbab,' or a head scarf, if I walked outside even though I am not a moslem. I also experienced that Aceh people are tough and strong. Some participants are the victims of the tsunami disaster, they lost their family. One of the teachers said that she lost two of her children and her tears fell from her eyes when she said that one of the children looked like me. But she had an expression of submission to fate, that it was God's will. As a mother, if I were her, I don't think I'd be able to have such a feeling!
The participants reported that they had so much fun during the training and so will the students. They will implement it in the classroom with the monitoring from CCE. CCE will visit some of the school and have discussion with the teachers as well as the students on the program.
Problems
The participants tried to discuss and solve three main issues: the bumpy roads in Kutaraja district, the lack of clean water in the neighborhoods and the shortage of gasoline in Banda Aceh.
Participants present their project
Conclusion
By following this training, the participants saw that project citizen is a challenging method in teaching civic education. Teachers will get a new wider paradigm of how to teach students so that the students will find a more interesting environment in learning how to be a good citizen. They finally realize the importance of themselves as a part of the larger country, enabling them to do best and perform admirably as citizens.
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