The disasters—which claimed over 1,200 lives—continue to have a far-reaching impact. Education has been hit particularly hard, with at least 4,800 schools affected, leaving many students to attend classes in temporary, makeshift facilities.
“Sir, we’re having class again tomorrow, right?”
It was a simple question from the children surviving the floods and landslides in East Aceh, but it was enough to stir the hearts of the volunteers, ultimately changing their entire plan.
At the time, volunteers from the Atjeh Connection Foundation were running a mobile emergency school program across various flood-stricken areas, including Ranto Panyang Rubek Hamlet, Sijudo Village in East Aceh.
These teaching sessions were originally intended to be a one-time occurrence at each stop, held alongside medical check-ups and medicine distribution.
However, the children's request moved the volunteers to make the initiative a regular fixture, all for the sake of protecting the dreams of the next generation.
The November flash floods may have leveled the classrooms of Ranto Panyang Rubek State Elementary School, but they failed to crush the students' enthusiasm for learning.
In place of the destroyed school building, a white tent now stands to accommodate classes.
Inside, there are no walls to separate grades and no chairs to sit on. Instead, simple black marker lines on a shared chalkboard are the only thing dividing one lesson from the next.
The students sit on black tarps under the white tent's cover, using small desks donated by volunteers.
Nevertheless, all the limitations there fail to diminish the big dreams of these young survivors.
Dreams and hope
“Me! Me! I want to be president!” shouted a girl named Nisa, raising her hand into the air as the ANTARA team asked the students about their dreams for the future.
“Wait, didn’t you say you wanted to be a police officer?” another child chimed in. Nisa quickly clarified that she planned to be either a president or a police officer, or both, if at all possible.
While Nisa was torn between being a president and a police officer, other children shouted out dreams of becoming doctors, astronauts, teachers, soldiers, and entrepreneurs.
Some even aspired to be a tauke sawit—a local term for palm oil boss—likely because their village is surrounded by plantations and most residents of Ranto Panyang Rubek make their living from the oil palm industry.
The lively chatter about their dreams, echoing across the mud left behind by the floods, was a testament to these children's resilience. Their school may have been swept away by the current, but they remain standing firm in pursuit of their goals.
This unwavering spirit from the students has become the fuel for the teachers at Ranto Panyang Rubek State Elementary School, including Rahmat Syah.
He noted that even though they have to learn in an emergency tent, the students remain enthusiastic, partly due to various forms of assistance given, including school supplies.
To keep the flame of these students' spirits alive, teachers—who are survivors themselves—willingly travel through muddy, extreme routes to reach the emergency school.
The path is a grueling trek of steep climbs and winding descents. When the rains fall, the wet road leaves vehicles constantly at risk of skidding or sliding off.
The emergency classes start at 8 a.m. until 12 p.m. from Monday to Saturday, involving 10 teachers who teach 34 students of Ranto Panyang Rubek State Elementary School. However, the teaching and learning activities are suspended during the month of Ramadan.
The subjects provided include Natural and Social Sciences, Mathematics, Indonesian Language, Islamic Education, and Physical Education, among others.
Need for support
The emergency classes of Ranto Panyang Rubek State Elementary School still need facilities and infrastructure support. If rebuilding the school in a short period is still not yet possible, the school, according to Rahmat, needs at least whiteboards and textbooks.
The loss of textbooks—swept away in the late November floods—has left teachers struggling to teach.
Furthermore, the emergency school is in need of additional whiteboards; currently, the Ranto Panyang Rubek emergency school has only one. They also require classroom partitions to help lessons run more effectively.
In response to the needs of disaster survivors across Sumatra, the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Abdul Mu'ti, has proposed an additional budget of Rp2.4 trillion (approximately US$142.8 million) for post-disaster recovery in the provinces of Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra.
The additional budget will be used for post-disaster relief, including school revitalization, special teacher allowances, and the distribution of government-funded equipment.
To accelerate the recovery of the learning process, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has developed a series of work plans over the last two weeks of February. This includes a coordination meeting with education offices in the three affected provinces to speed up post-disaster reconstruction.
Additionally, the ministry will proceed with signing cooperation agreements for school revitalization, targeting a total of 1,204 schools.
For the special teacher allowance, the ministry will continue the verification and account-opening process for 13,000 teachers, with a total allowance value of Rp83.3 billion.
The ministry will also resume the distribution of government aid in the form of equipment—including ICT tools, lab equipment, sports equipment, cleaning kits, and educational play materials—totaling Rp60 billion.
These diverse efforts demonstrate how volunteers, teachers, and the government are working hand-in-hand to restore education in the flood- and landslide-hit regions, preserving hope for a brighter future among the affected children.
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Translator: Putu Indah, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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