Project Citizen: Kami Bangsa Indonesia
MONITORING REPORT
Ambon, 24 April 2008

By Acih Sari, Program Coordinator

Two schools in Ambon were visited on Thursday, 24 April 2008 to monitor the implementation of Kami Bangsa Indonesia (KBI) program in its classrooms. The first school was SMPN 1 Ambon, a state school. This school had a surprise for us. Johanis Rumwarin, the civic teacher, with the support from the principal and the other teachers, held a successful KBI school showcase on his own initiative. Seven teams or around 100 students from 7th and 8th grade participated in the showcase and the school independently gave the winners awards. This wonderful event made a local newspaper covered the activity and published the news on Siwalima, on Monday, 31 March 2008. This made me feel very confident in the sustainability of the KBI program.

From Mr. Rumwarin`s stories I knew that all students who joined the showcase were very enthusiastic and showed their best performances in the showcase. They experienced many things during the making of their project and in presenting their portfolio. They found that it’s nice to work in groups and discuss problems. Talking in front of the public was also an unforgettable experience for most of them. The third grade students, who could not join the showcase because of the national exam, complained to Mr. Rumwarin and hoped they could learn KBI too.

Johanis Rumwarin, the civic teacher and some of his students
who have joined the school showcase

Izak who presented about a garbage problem in his community said, “I can talk directly to important people. Many people want to talk to them but they can’t.  KBI made me able to talk to those people”. Krisna, Izak`s classmate, added, “At first I throw garbage anywhere I want, but after I joined this program now I became the model for other students. I throw garbage in the trash bin and now if I see someone throw garbage anywhere I will tell him/her not to do so”.

Izak and Krisna (8th Grade students of SMPN 1 Ambon)

In finding information to support their portfolio, I found that students can find it easier that I thought. They go directly to the sources of information, such as politicians from the Representatives Office, government institutions, television stations and churches. They interview officials and people at places like these. The teacher’s motivation also played a big role in the success of the implementation of KBI in this school. His eagerness to practice KBI was more than I expected.

Some students discuss their new project in group

During the KBI learning process, students with different religious background worked together and had some discussions. The students also worked closely with their society and create empathy, and they became open minded and tolerant. Open-mindedness and tolerance are essential values for post conflict areas.

The second visited school is SMP Kristen Kalam Kudus, a private Christian school. In this school I experienced the effort of the civic teacher, Netry Mainake, to include the KBI program into the national curriculum. I really appreciated her hard work because as a teacher she obligates to deliver many subject to her students. One of them is about human rights. In order to include the KBI into the subject, the students select problems that related to human rights issue and develop it in portfolios. They used KBI program to explain more about the problems to their friends and family. The selected problems are violence to servants, sexuality issues and violation of human rights.

Netry Mainake - the civic teacher and her students after learning the KBI program

Marissa, one of Ms. Netry`s student explained that when they learn KBI, they learn more about Indonesia. She likes the presentation session very much because she can talk in front of many people. Other students said with KBI they can solve problems and find the solutions. The internet helps them a lot in finding the information about the cases they studied. Again, many students said that they like work in groups so that they can discuss the problem together and find the solutions together too.

Marissa (right) and Vedora (left) when learning KBI together

In conclusion, the implementation of KBI program in the classrooms very much depends on the eagerness and motivation of the civic teachers. The method of how KBI program was delivered to the teachers on the training played a big role in inspiring and motivating them to implement the program in their school. The content of KBI program was also the quality that made this program ran successfully, with the support of civic teachers, schools and CCEI.