Second Assignment of EFS Course

Long time no blogging since examination period was come. Examination means being a superintendent and correcting a stack of papers.. Kinda little busy doing that.. hehhehe.. *too many excuse.. :P

Recently, my colleagues and I take an English for Speaking course at our campus. Firstly, it didn't work well. But, after having a meeting with chief of the course, the problem is over. Well, at least until now.. hehe.. Every meeting, the lecturer give us an assignment. Usually, making a short article using verbs that we just learned about. And this is my second assignment. I tell a short story about education in Indonesia and relate it with Indonesia Mengajar. Enjoy,, and if you don't mind,, correct it. *Waiting for the lecturer' s opinion about the grammar..  :)

One of Indonesia’s objective which is can be seen at preamble of 1945’s constitution is educating Indonesian people. To support this objective, the government makes a program called “Wajib Belajar 9 Tahun”. By using this program, the government expects that at least all of Indonesian people have been educated for nine years, six years in Elementary School and three years in Junior High School. Unfortunately, as we can see in many cases, this program is not success yet. There are many factors causing that. But, I think the main factor is discrepancy happened in Indonesia.

As we know together, Indonesia is an archipelago. There are hundreds of islands separated by sea. Because of the distance, the development of each island is different. The most developed island is Java, while others, such as Maluku, Papua, and Nusa Tenggara are still under developed. Of course, this difference affects in many aspect, including the medical and transportation facilities. Because of these, most Indonesian people are not interest in working on those islands. Inevitably, educational facilities are influenced. The lack of teacher, the ramshackle buildings, and the leaky roofs are common situations the government in the under developed island must deal with.

Thus, no matter what, the discrepancy in developed and under developed islands must be vanished. The facility of under developed islands must be equalized to the one in developed area. There are many solutions generated to solve this discrepancy. One of them is a program called “Indonesia Mengajar”. This program was established by Anis Baswedan in 2009. It is intended to invite the best graduated student to become teacher in under developed islands.

I was a college student when I knew this program for the first time. When I visited the website, here, I was impressed by the phrase in the head of the website: stop criticizing the dark, let’s light the candle. I was speechless and couldn’t agree no more. I thought that instead of blaming government, it is a good chance for us to do what we can do with our abilities, whatever it is. Unfortunately, my family didn’t give their permission for me to participate in this program.

But, remembering where I work now, I am very grateful. Although not being a teacher in under developed islands, I am a teacher now. Well, a semi-assistant one. And I am happy doing this.