Agusta Tamala, Teaching for ‘Nothing’
Agusta Tamala
If 43-year-old Agusta Tamala was a member of the House of Representatives, she would certainly lodge a protest against the government because she was working for almost no pay. But she cannot do this, as Agusta is a non-permanent teacher in a remote area about 2,000 kilometers from the center of power in Jakarta.
Agusta Tamala is like an angel who is saving and preparing children for their futures in Yamalatu village of Telutih district, Central Maluku regency. She has revived learning in a village on the remote island of Seram. The village had not seen any educational activities for almost six years since 2005, when the region was just beginning to recover from the social conflict that hit Maluku in January 1999.
In the still tense conditions, Agusta invited the children to come study at her temporary house; children who had just returned home from the evacuation camp. The children took their lessons indoors on the floor, without any tables or chairs, because the new SD Inpres Yamalatu elementary school had been burned down during the conflict. The schoolteacher fled, had not returned.
Agusta, who is a senior high school graduate, volunteered to teach the nearly 50 village children who were the victims of the conflict. “I’m sad to see the little children who can’t read, write or count. I was determined to teach them. Back then, my only drive was the hope of helping them,” she said.
When she started teaching, Agusta had no textbooks. She would have to go to the district capital of Masohi to obtain them. The trip there would be hazardous, as the conflict still raged in Masohi; not to mention that the trip would take at least two days because the journey would take her across dozens of rivers. The roads were unpaved, and there were very few cars.
Today, it takes around two hours from Yamalatu to Masohi.
So Agusta relied on her memory of the subjects that she learned at school. Of course, she could not teach all the subjects, so she taught reading, writing, arithmetic, Pancasila education and religion. Her goal was to make sure the children could read, do basic arithmetic, gain knowledge about their country and understand religious teachings. Given the conditions, there were no progress reports for several years.
Six years later in 2011, Agusta was still teaching elementary grades 1-6 to the village children. The villagers took the initiative to build a temporary school. Agusta teaches every day from 7:30 a.m. to noon. When she leaves, the students turn rowdy and raucous, which pleases her.
Agusta taught the children without pay from 2005. The people of Yamalatu village decided to pay her Rp 52,000 per month, but the economic condition of the village, which had just started recovering from the conflict, meant that they could not fulfill this. Agusta continued teaching anyway. “I did complain, and my husband gave me strengthen. He supported me to continue teaching,” she said.
Nearly closed down
In 2008, officials from the Telutih District Education Agency visited the village and discovered a public school there that was run by a single teacher who was a senior high school graduate. The officials planned to close down the school because of the absence of civil servant teachers and because the school did not possess adequate conditions for learning.
The officials’ arrival was a nightmare. Instead of repairing the school and bringing teachers back to the village, they wanted to close the school. On hearing of the plan, the children cried and their parents became anxious. Closing down the school meant an end to their children’s dreams. They negotiated on keeping the school, and Agusta offered a guarantee.
“I said then that I would continue teaching, even without pay. It would be fine by me,” she recalled.
She told Kompas about her determination to continue the learning activities at SD Inpres Yamalatu in early December 2018. Her story recalled the conditions at SD Muhammadiyah East Belitung elementary in Bangka Belitung as Andrea Hirata described in Laskar Pelangi. In the novel, the school was almost closed down because it did not have enough students; closing the school would end the dreams of youths.
Agusta’s promise impressed the officials, who then provided desks and chairs as assistance. After three years studying on the floor, the children were finally able to study at desks in in 2008, even though there were not enough desks and chairs so they shared them, cramped together. They still had only one teacher, Agusta.
Until one day in 2012, then-Central Maluku regent Abdullah Tuasikal visited the village. Not wanting to waste the rare opportunity, Agusta directly asked the regent to appoint civil servant teachers to the school. The teachers were appointed and repairs on the school began.
Today, SD Inpres Yamalatu has three civil servant teachers and three non-permanent teachers, including Agusta. The new teachers only have about five years of experience, while Agusta has taught for 14 years. Many years before, the village promised to pay her Rp 52,000 per month, and then the administration promised to pay her Rp 200,000 per month, but the results are unclear. “Let’s just say that I’m not exactly paid,” said Agusta.
Living in a high-cost area like Maluku means that Rp 52,000 or Rp 200,000 does not stretch very far. To illustrate, rice costs Rp 15,000 per kilogram, while the return fare for traveling by car to and from the district capital is Rp 300,000. The 2019 minimum wage for Maluku province is Rp 2.4 million.
Thanks to her family’s support from and her determination to serve the children, Agusta continues to teach. If she became a civil servant, at least she would have a steady income. Her family’s income currently comes from her husband, Hendrik Walalohun, who is an informal worker.
Agusta’s struggle to maintain education in the village inspired the children to continue their schooling. After graduating from SD Inpres Yamalatu, the children pursued their education at the junior high and senior high schools in Laimu village, the subdistrict capital. They walk 8 kilometers every day to get to school, crossing a rapidly flowing river. Today, many of Agusta’s early students have gone on to university.
The head priest of Yamalatu village, Marga Patiasina, said that he had never seen anyone as sincere as Agusta in all the years he had served across the regions of Maluku. She was an example of fortitude and sacrifice, an exemplary model for children’s education in remote areas.
Agusta Tamala
Born: Yamalatu, Aug. 12, 1975
Husband: Hendrik Walalohun
Children: Three
Education: Senior high school
