Category: Expanding Gold Teak

Cibeuerem Elementary School still needs additional teachers, because currently there are only three teachers to teach 78 students for six grades. The teachers and students are always eager to go to school, even though they still come and study together on a rainy day.

A teacher must teach two classes every day, sometimes when one teacher gets an assignment to attend a work meeting outside the school, then a teacher must teach three classes on that day. The teachers and students always work together, they understand that some of them have to learn independently when the teacher is teaching in another class.

When the assignment given by the teacher is finished and they still have time, then they look for the reading books or story books given by Goldteak. They will read together because of the limited number of books. They usually read together on the  school porch.

This time, there was a special visit, besides Goldteak giving some new story books and sweets but they also received milk given by ibu Niken from PT Petrolink. There are some younger  children who are not yet in school joining the activity, they come because they want to participate in Goldteak’s CSR program.

Drought season has ended in November and now the rainy season has begun. It rains almost every day, morning, afternoon or night, sometimes for a while it can be long all day or all night.

Government fixed & built the road to school with cement, but cement does not last long. Usually rain makes the road easily damaged and cracked.

Students who do not live near the school will walk to school in the rain, almost all students do not have umbrellas or raincoats, usually they use banana leaves or taro leaves to protect themselves from rain.

Rain does not make students lazy to go to school, because they know that they will earn, play and read story books given by PT Goldteak with their friends. Rainy days are another happy days for the students.

Many ways to make students excited to go to school, the teacher is always looking for ways to make the lesson interesting and students do not feel bored at school.

Some students feel reluctant to go to school if they are not ready to face tests. Feeling bored and tired can make students lazy to go to school too.

It rarely happens in Cibeureum Elementary school, the students are eager to go to school every day. The school has only three teachers instead of six, but they created an independent learning modules so that students can study by themselves or in groups when the teacher is not present in their class.

The books provided by Goldteak really help students, they can use their time to do some activities by working on experimental projects.

To increase the enthusiasm of the students, Goldteak sent Ms. Dewi to SD Cibeureum. Activities that are often carried out are storytelling, retelling or giving quizzes. Students are very enthusiastic about taking the quiz, at the end of the quiz they got candy, biscuits, notebooks, colored pencils or a little pocket money.

Thomas Jefferson said “I cannot live without books”. Mostly big cities have libraries and book stores, children and adults always read books every day. Libraries and bookstores are always crowded, every day people are always looking for books to support their work, hobbies or to enrich their knowledge.
Bantargadung regent does not have any library and bookstore, SD Cibening’s students never go to the city to buy books, they receive books from government through the school. But all books are student books, government does not provide other books.
Every month, PT Goldteak always donates story books, social science books to help the students to develop their knowledge for their childhood life.
By reading books students can explore the world of knowledge without limits.

Every month Goldteak provides funds for CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programs, mostly used to buy story books, student encyclopedias, books on social science. The program has been implemented since 2009 and it influences well to the students, for their knowledge and life experience.

The students were very pleased with the books given by Goldteak, because they had never gone to the bookstore or to the library, because Sukabumi does not have a National Library that could be visited by the community especially school students.

Students usually take turns reading each other for every new book given. The books are for students who are still in elementary level, but the book s can be read by anyone because the books are about social knowledge.

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free” (Frederick Douglass)

This year SD Cibeureum has seven new students for grade one, three girls and four boys. They are six and seven years old. Cibening village does not have a kindergarten, they go to elementary school directly without having an experience in Kindergarten.

Teaching first grade students is a little harder than teaching second grade students, because he/she has to introduce numbers and letters at the same time while the students want to play more. Learning to write and draw is a different challenge, students only depend on the lessons given by the school, parents only accompany them to do their homework at home because although the parents are not illiterate but basically they just Primary School graduates.

Before they go to SD Cibeureum, they used to join their brothers or sisters, reading story books at the school porch. For them, story books are interesting, many different stories make them happy, reading books and going to school to meet friends are the most interesting things for them.

There are only three teachers who teach at Cibeureum Elementary School, they have to teach for six classes or six grades. One of them is Civil Servant (PNS/Pegawai Negeri Sipil) and two are honorary staffs/teachers. The PNS teacher is Pak Asep and the honorary teachers are Ms. Nina and Mr. Heri.

Because the number of rooms are limited, every two classes are combined in one room. Mr. Dedi as Principal does not come regularly, Pak Asep as a PNS teacher always helps pak Dedi to take care of the school administration.

The dedication of the teachers in teaching is extraordinary, they always work hard to help students learn and practice school activities without complaining. There is one thing that the honorary teachers expecting that the government will appoint them as civil servants so their welfare will be better.

The new school year has started, fifteen students who were sixth grade have graduated and now they go on to Junior High School. First-year students have gone up to become second-year students. For first grade students, they are seven children aged six or seven, three girls and four boys.

There is almost no money spent by parents for school fees when they send their children to the government school. Government also provides assistance to poor students through the Indonesia Smart Card. Elementary students get IDR 450,000 per year and can be used to buy school uniforms, bags & shoes.

For textbooks, the government provides them periodically. Parents only need to buy school stationery.
Although the first grade students did not study in Kindergarten, they already get used to with the school, because they often played at the school, especially when they join the students read story books from Goldteak at the school porch.

(Pictures: from first grade to six grade)

National Exam for Elementary School level is an activity to measure student competency achievement carried out by schools only for certain subjects; Indonesian, Mathematics & Science/Social science. It was done for three days, from 22nd to, 24th of April 2019.
It is necessary to know that there are three different types of exams; National Exam, Computer Based Exams (UNBK) or National Standardized Exams (USBN)
Schools that have advanced & fulfilled the requirements can carry out UNBK & USBN and schools that have not advanced will attend the National Examination & USBN.
Students take part in many activities to prepare the exam, not only preparation for the subjects but they have to prepare physically & mentally as well.
The graduation announcement will be on June 12th, 2019 and the graduation is something that has been awaited by students who have been attending school for six years, and they can’t wait to continue to Junior High School.

The world of the Children is only playing and learning. They are happy with all playing activities indoor or outdoor.
Most of the children in Cibening village still live with natural and normal experience. They do not have modern games, they only play traditional games; playing Daku, Bekel, picture cards, rubber rope, Halma and other local traditional games.
Nearly all children under five and ages before entering elementary school, they only play, because in this village there is no kindergarten or playground. They go straight to elementary school.
The duties of first grade teachers are quite heavy, because in addition to introducing the world of schools they also have to overcome social and environmental problems.
Goldteak contributes a lot of reading books for children who are new to the world of school or who are just starting to learn about numbers and alphabets.
As long as the children are still in the educational environment, both at home and at school, they can certainly find their new world full of joy.