School for Migrant Workers’ Children

KOMPAS/KHAERUL ANWAR

Muhammad Khairul Ihwan

M Khairul Ikhwan has long been concerned to see many children from Indonesian migrant worker families and poor families in East Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, without a proper education. He then designed a vocational education program that they could access for free. In fact, from the program, they get an allowance.

To date, only a few poor families in East Lombok have access to education. One reason is their inability to pay tuition fees. Ikhwan tried to respond to this by developing vocational high school SMK Ondak Jaya and a workshop in his kampung, Desa Utara hamlet, Pringga Jurang village, Montong Gading district, East Lombok.

Most of the students come from farming families, laborer families and are children of Indonesian migrant workers. They were freed from the obligation to pay for tuition fees for school and the workshop, which later became the teaching factory/business unit of the vocational school. The students are involved in assembling frames and installing engines to produce machines for processing agricultural and plantation commodities. The students even get a pay of Rp 20,000 (US$1.30) per day.

"This was born from idealism," Ikhwan said on Monday (21/10/2019). That idealism emerged when he was a student at vocational technical high school (now SMK 3) in Mataram. He wanted to establish a vocational school that produces great graduates to absorb the labor market and build independent businesses. To achieve this, the students need to equip themselves with the knowledge and skills through a process he refers to as ondak (ladder).

Due to a lack of supervision from their grandparents, these children often skip school and choose more entertaining activities.

The fact that the students come from poor families and the the socioeconomic reality of the community become considerations for establishing this form of education. Village children who take vocational education in urban areas are generally economically disadvantaged. They choose vocational schools in the hope of being able to work and change their destiny with the skills taught at school.

At Ondak vocational school, from the 72 students at Grade 1 to Grade 3, there are 36 students whose parents are migrant workers in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. The remaining students come from the families of farmers, farm laborers and workers.

Some parents who work as migrant workers are husband and wife. So, they leave their children with their grandparents. Due to a lack of supervision from their grandparents, these children often skip school and choose more entertaining activities.

KOMPAS/KHAERUL ANWAR

Muhammad Khairul Ihwan

It is also idealism that made Ikhwan do his best when he became a mechanical engineering teacher at Selong’s state vocational school SMK 1, in East Lombok, in 2003. He actively guided students in writing and research competitions, invited students to practice outside school hours and educated students in  entrepreneurship by pioneering the establishment of a shop — owned by the school — which sells rice, sugar, cooking oil and other needs at the vocational school.

Students were also taught to make heavy steel construction, manufacture information and communication technologies (ICT) antenna for internet needs throughout East Lombok and to build biogas installations, mini-hydro power plants and other appropriate technology machines. The activity was stopped in 2009 because the new school principal had another policy in developing schools.

In 2010, Ikhwan established the Nolen Training Center, which has been active in empowering and increasing community competencies, including migrant workers, through training. In 2014, Ikhwan established Ondak Jaya Teknik, a business entity that produces food processing equipment and machines, agricultural commodity processing machines, heavy steel and tower construction services and a variety of welding works.

The workshop is located on 3.23 hectares of land in the Dalem Utara hamlet, Pringga Jurang village. He set aside his salary, savings and the grants for his research to buy the land for Rp 76 million. His first research in 2009 was "Changing the Smoke from Burning Bricks into Organic Pesticides".

After his business was up and running, Ikhwan established a vocational school in 2017. He bought 1.2 ha of land for Rp 1.3 billion in Joben hamlet, Pesanggrahan village, Pringga Jurang district, about 7 kilometers from his workshop.

We are grateful that there are young people, such as school principals, heads of departments and teachers, who have joined this school not because of money, but a common mission to build the nation\'s children

On the land is a building that functions as a grain warehouse, which was renovated into a classroom. The targeted students for the vocational school were village children who were unable and do not have access to public vocational schools. To find the students, Ikhwan offered the opportunity door to door. He assured residents that the vocational school was free of charge.

The vocational school accepted new students in 2019 with only one major, engineering, with 24 students. On the advice of the West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Education Agency, the school added another major, industrial electronics engineering. The vocational teachers (16 people) included graduates from the School of Engineering, Yogyakarta State University and several universities in Mataram.

The operational costs of the vocational school, such as teacher salaries, purchase of practical and furniture materials, student apprenticeship as electricity payments, are taken from the Ondak Jaya Engineering Business. The business also provides support for 280 widows on Idul Fitri in the village. The government allocates school operational assistance funds for the vocational students. Ikhwan is now seconded to managing NTB\'s Science Technology and Industry Park.

Read more : Guardian of Gandang Dewata

"We are grateful that there are young people, such as school principals, heads of departments and teachers, who have joined this school not because of money, but a common mission to build the nation\'s children," Ikhwan said.

In fact, three agricultural equipment companies in Mataram are ready to employ students of the school’s mechanical engineering program after they graduate.