Goducate introduces English and computer classes in a poor Indonesian village

Cipada is a Sunda village located in Cisarua District, West Bandung Regency, West Java Province, Indonesia.

Cipada is in the valley of the Burangrang mountain, about 35 km from the capital city of Bandung. According to the 2024 census, Cipada had a population of 8,542, of whom are from the farming community. The poor economic background means that many children start to help their parents with farming as soon as they finish their senior high school education.

The farmers occasionally have to take loans from middlemen to buy vegetable seeds and fertilizer. The loan agreement or contract forces them to sell their harvest to the same middlemen from whom they obtained the loan---at a price significantly lower than the market price. This means that the farmers will continue to need loans for each round of farming, so they always remain in debt.

The kids attending an English lesson 

To help the people, especially for their children’s education, in February 2023 Goducate Indonesia Foundation (known as GPN) introduced GPN to the leaders of the Cipada community. With the support of the local leaders, GPN opened the Cipada Education Center Project (CECEP) in a farming area belonging to a Goducate Indonesia partner. It is run under a GPN department called CENTRAL (Community Education, Training & Learning).

CENTRAL started an English Program for children as shown below:

-        1st batch, 17 March to 2 June 2023 with 11-27 children.

-        2nd batch, 15 Sept to 8 Dec 2023 with 12-30 children.

-        3rd batch, 19 Jan to 30 Mar 2024 with 11-20 children.

-        4th batch, 10 May to 26 July 2024 with 4-8 children.

-        5th batch, 2 Aug to 27 Nov 2024 with 4-11 children

-        6th batch,10 Jan – (going on) with 6-10 children.  

The one-hour English program is run once a week in a gazebo in the CECEP area. Not every child is able attend all the sessions. The materials for the lessons were designed, free of charge, by the CENTRAL team. There were two English teachers for Batch 1 to 5, and two others for Batch 6. They are GPN full-time staff living and working in Bandung, but they go to Cipada once a week.

The children are enthusiastic learners, and the local leaders and the parents are very happy to hear the children practising their basic English at home.

In May 2023 CENTRAL started computer classes with 2-3 junior high school students. This program is limited by the number of computers available. The students receive private tuition for an hour once a week, without charge. They are taught in a room of a house next to the gazebo in CECEP area because of the need for the computers to be connected to electricity. The computer modules are focused on Microsoft programs and the teacher is a member of the GPN staff.

Students having a computer lesson

 This piece was written by Rani Ismayawati, supervisor of CENTRAL.