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BANYUMAS: Improvements in the Parents Group
The Grade 1 parents group at 1 SDN Pandansari in Ajibarang subdistrict Banyumas reformed its management in October 2006. It chose leaders and made a timetable of activities. To improve management, the group added an administration system The system included an organizational structure, an attendance register and a book for minutes of meetings. As a result, the activities of the group in supporting the management and learning in Grade 1 have continued to improve.
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Above: The administration books at 1 SDN Pandansari in Ajibarang subdistrict.
Below: The rota of helpers from the parents group is displayed.
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CENTRAL JAKARTA: We're doing it too!
The primary schools facilitators from Jakarta joined in an MBE Facilitators Consolidation Workshop for all districts from 4 - 7 March 2007. The group, which was accompanied by Bpk Suyoto, the Head of the Primary Schools Section, actively joined in the activities run by the MBE consultants.
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Above: DTalking to the team from Central Jakarta. They expressed their wish to be able to do the same as the facilitators from other districts, who have done more work in their own schools as well as working in other districts.
Below: Jakarta facilitators are doing their very best in their own schools and the results were displayed in the National Review Meeting in Salatiga. According to the Head of the Primary Schools Section the materials are going to be used to disseminate innovations to the other classes in the facilitators own schools first. When they feel ready and experienced enough, they will start to work with other schools.
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Maria Ulfah: Primus Inter Pares
Story of an MBE Facilitator
Is it possible to make a person primus inter pares, first among equals? Hard work, high level of commitment and a desire to do her best for others are the three key factors that caused Maria Ulfah, an MBE national facilitator for the early grades classes to be noticed and entrusted with training teachers all over Indonesia and even in Sabah Malaysia.
MBE, DBE, CLCC, UNESCO-UNICEF, World Vision Indonesia, ERA-AUSAID and Bpk Fasli Jalal, the Director General for Quality Assurance in Education are some of those who have asked Maria Ulfah to help them train teachers to teach using PAKEM.
Maria Ulfah started in 1989 by working hard as a voluntary teacher for an early grades class with a wage of Rp. 7.500,- per month at a school, which was held in low regard by the community, since its graduates always got low rankings.
The school was SDN Kebon Dalem in Mojosari subdistrict, Mojokerto. Without complaining about her very small wages, Maria stuck to her principles of working hard and doing her best for her students, always trying new things, not afraid of making mistakes and always ready to learn from them.
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In the end she met the presidents! Maria Ulfah (in the blue jacket) with the two presidents and their wives!
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Her hard work was noticed by Stuart Weston in 2000 when he visited Maria Ulfah's school, which was being used to try out PAKEM as part of the CLCC program. Having watched her teach, Stuart Weston invited Maria Ulfah to become a resource person in a workshop about PAKEM in Bogor.
This was the first time in her life that this voluntary teacher had set foot outside her village. Even the school principal was worried about her going and accompanied her to the bus station in Bungurasih, Surabaya. In Bogor, Maria Ulfah learned more about how to make even better lesson plans.
After that, a new episode started in Maria Ulfah's life. She now had to work even harder, because she was asked many times to become a guest speaker and trainer and was herself trained in many places in Indonesia.
As a result she gained much new knowledge and experience. Maria Ulfah tried everything out in her own class, so that what she was teaching and talking about during training was not much different from what she was doing in her class.
The other teachers in her school noticed and learned from what she was doing, so that SDN Kebon Dalam has now become a school that is much visited by other schools from Java and elsewhere and the academic performance of the students is now something to be proud of. Although she has been giving training at national level, Maria Ulfah is still a simple teacher with voluntary status.
For her the most important things are to work hard, give of your best for the children's sake and, as for her status as a civil servant or voluntary teacher, that is for the Almighty to decide!
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