Recently one of Goducate’s Indonesian partners invited me to visit her work in central Sumatra, with the view of starting Goducate centers there. Though Sumatra is a neighbour of Singapore, it was my first visit to this island. It is strange that though I’d visited many distant, hard to reach places, I had never visited this large, easy to reach friendly neighbour. In fact, most Singaporeans, who are some of the most travelled people in the world, have never even considered going to Sumatra. For many of us, Sumatra probably conjures images of tsunamis and the terrorists.
When I landed in the busy, modern airport of Pekan Baru, the capital of the province of Riau, I realised that this was a rich province. The government buildings in the city were some of the most impressive and modern buildings that I’d even seen in Indonesia. As we drove out into the country-side, I noticed a large pipeline hugging the side of the road. It looked like any other pipeline except that it was obviously carrying some hot liquid because the rain drops that fell on it were instantly converted into steam. It was an oil-pipeline that carried oil from the oil-wells to the refinery. Besides this pipeline that followed me for over almost 200 kilometers, everywhere I turned I saw endless palm-oil plantations. Riau is indeed an oil rich province!
However, though Riau is blessed with natural riches, the people do not seem to be benefitting much from this bounty. Foreign companies (eg. Caltex/Chevron) or large Indonesian companies (eg. Pertamina) seem to be the main benefactors.
The purpose of my visit was to see how Goducate could help the rural children. I visited a school which our Indonesian Goducate partner had started. It was a little elementary school with 150 students, situated among palm-oil trees. I was told that the land on which the school stood belonged to an oil company and that under the school was the oil well which was being tapped by the oil company!
It was a well-built school whose construction had been funded by kind Koreans. The school was well run. They teachers were dedicated and caring. However, the school lacked teaching-aids (eg. educational posters, library books) and equipment (eg. dvd players, computers). These deficiencies can easily be rectified. Overall, I was impressed with the quality of education that these rural Indonesians were receiving.
My conclusion at the end of my short trip to Sumatra is that Goducate may be able to help in just two areas of education – English and computers. This was also the conclusion of our Indonesian partners.
After I came back from Pekan Baru, another Indonesian co-worker (unrelated to the one that invited me to Pekan Baru) told me that his former university friends in Medan (northern Sumatra) were inviting Goducate to visit Medan in April, with a view to start Goducate centers in rural villages.
Two visits in Sumatra in three months! I must be making up for lost time!!
