Recently, I was invited by a friend to visit some private schools in the city of Pekan Baru in Sumatra, Indonesia. He had heard from a fellow Indonesian about how Goducate was helping the private schools in Batam and wanted me to do a “survey” of the school situation in his city of Pekan Baru.
I visited a couple of schools in the city and had the privilege to talk to the principals and teachers of these schools. I was impressed by the sincerity and desire of these dear men and ladies to do their best – in spite of a lack of on-going training and facilities in many of such private schools in Indonesia.
The situation in the elite private and government schools is fairly good by Asian standards. However, the situation in the private schools that cater to the poorer people is clearly inadequate. The gap between the haves and have-nots is large in Indonesia.
Indonesia is an emerging world economy. And Pekan Baru is a prosperous city blessed with oil from the ground and palm-oil for huge plantations. The city is impressive with nice buildings, shopping malls and new automobiles. The people are amazingly gracious and friendly. And the food is awesomely tasty and cholesterol laden!!
On my last night there, about 120 teachers from about 6 private schools were invited to a sumptuous dinner by my friend at a nice restaurant. It was his way to say “thank you” to these teachers who had labored hard to provide a good education to his cities’ poorer people.
I was privileged to encourage them and challenge them to grab every opportunity to upgrade their skills. The Q and A time was lively and could have gone on for hours, if not for the fact that the food was ready to be served!
From the response that night, it appears that Goducate might have to get ready to work on a regular basis with these dear men and women who help needy Indonesians help themselves.