Iskul

Category: Updates

  • Annual Field Visit 2019 (Finally!)

    For the most part of the early journey from the Tawau Airport to Semporna, the view is mostly oil palms and coconut trees, bushes, and occasionally, houses. Well, the road definitely has greatly improved as there are no more dangerous potholes. Ah, still the familiar trip nonetheless!

    It has been over two years since any of the management team members visited Semporna and boy, did the town changed! As the distance to Semporna town closes, the first obvious change is the lack of rubbish on the roadside where previously it was almost unmissable. Well done, Sempornians!

    As the major eyesore issue is now finally taken care of, there was really nothing major we thought Semporna really need, but boy oh boy, the town has upgraded! The second you passed the archway that welcomes you to Semporna, a 5-6 storey high new hotel greets you. Then, there is a McDonald’s! If previously you needed to make a trip to Tawau (the next nearest town) for the fast food, now you do not need to! New concept lodging facilities mushroomed all across the town and you can hardly miss it because it is just so-out-of-place (in a good way, perhaps?). Restaurants and fancy cafes are also spotted as you approach the centre of the town.

    When you approach the most happening side of the town, well, apparently, it is no longer the most happening side anymore because a Seafest Mall with Starbucks and Tealive has been constructed on reclaimed land on the northeast side of the town. Wow.

    We wonder if Omadal Island has changed too?

    The road heading to Jeti Umum Semporna situated near Giant mall Semporna remains very much the same – crowded and wet as catches of the day are being traded. The journey to Omadal begins by getting on a 12-15 person passenger boat to Balimbang. The whole journey takes about 45-60 minutes to reach Omadal Island. Nothing has really changed in this part of the journey, apparently.

    Upon arriving Omadal Island, find your way to the resident of the Ketua Kampung to make your presence known and then register yourself at the General Operations Force (Malay: Pasukan Gerakan Am; PGA) centre for security check and protection.

    All in all, Omadal Island has not changed much. The goats are still roaming around, grazing on any plantations they can find, the turtle hatchery and the football court. Well, there is now a beautifully re-constructed Balai Raya (Community Hall) and a fully functionally mosque.

    After making our obligated rounds, we finally visited Pondok Iskul! Since the completion of its construction, the management team has not made any official (physical) visit and this time, we will be putting up in the Pondok for the next 10 days! As we toured the space, we were overwhelmed by gratitude that this dream of a conducive learning space is a reality!

    The trip was a packed one as we arrived just in time to celebrate Malaysia Day on 16 September. Following that, visits to the homes of our Iskul students were also arranged in an effort to register them officially and to gather basic family background. Our group interviews with 3-4 students in one session were also conducted to evaluate the current understanding of our new batch of students and find out if our previous batch students still remember the lessons they took.

    Whilst Omadal Island remains peaceful and calm, it has recently been receiving more visits from groups of loud foreign tourists carrying professional cameras. Children from the stateless community gathers upon receiving news of incoming visitors and soon gathered around these visitors. One young girl instinctively began “modelling” in the signature pose of flipping their long hair, and younger kids with their wooden boats are asked to flip over into the water as these visitors start snapping away. Once, we observed that the group of tourists intentionally bought coloured powder packets and with the help of a local tourist guide, they have “orchestrated” so that the children are on gathered on the boat and on their count, to release the powder for photograph effects.

    The scene was very difficult to observe, however, we are in no position to stop them because we are not a resident of the Omadal Island and for all we know, these visitors have sought permission from the Ketua Kampung.

    Nonetheless, we have a few burning questions we are dying to ask:

    To a tourist guide:

    • Why would you bring tourists to go watch stateless children and allow them to request these children to make a circus out of themselves i.e., flip hair, jump off the boat, etc?
    • Why is it that it is not okay with Malaysian children but okay with stateless children? They are children all the same, isn’t it?
    • Why would you allow tourists to take thousand dollars photo of stateless partially/fully-clothed children and in return, they only received small packets of sweets, snacks and maybe few ringgits as compensation for their “modelling effort” and their unique skin colour and background

    To the residents of the neighbourhood village:

    • Why would you allow such exploitation in the backyard of your own house and to the community that have stayed your neighbour for many years?

    To the visiting tourists:

    • Why did you think it would be helpful to compensate them with snacks and few ringgits for the effort these kids take in “modelling” under your instruction?
    • Why would you think your photos could make any difference to the state of these communities?
    • Why would you be trespassing on the privacy of these children for your own selfish needs of photography portfolio or travel memories? At some point, where is your photography etiquette to ask these kids to either remove their shirt or put on their shirt or change their shirt to fit your photography needs?
    • Do you really think that the amount you pay the guide to take you to these communities benefits the communities at all?

    As the sun sets on Omadal Island on the day before we leave, we realised that while the Semporna town has changed exponentially for the past 2 years, none of these developments has positively impacted the stateless community on Omadal Island.

  • Iskul introduces Mentor-Mentee Programme

    Iskul implemented the Mentor-Mentee program following the Strategic Planning Meeting in May 2018. Our Headmistress (Kak Roziah) and Field Coordinator, Aida meet with our ‘Mentor Pelajar’ (Mentor) to brainstorm how to kick-start the programme. This resulted in having four (4) Mentors to guide Level 1 and Level 2 (Pre-School levels) students from Monday to Wednesday in the Pondok Iskul for two hours daily. Each Mentor guides 3-4 students to revise lessons after the weekend classes. Mentors get an allowance of RM35 (for 3 days per week and 3 hours daily).

    However, the journey met many bumps along the way. We faced challenges mainly from both mentors and students. Overall, we only managed to conduct 9 classes between June to July. Despite having agreed to teach during the initial meeting, Mentors were noncommittal throughout. Only two Mentors attended nearly half of the classes while one Mentor attended twice and another one, once. Therefore, our FC had to teach instead. The initial lukewarm responses was also a result of some students’ refusal to be taught by their friends. A few students prefer to be taught by either the Mastal Arikik (MA) or the Field Coordinator (FC).  Students’ attendance was also poor, only less than 5 at the beginning.

    The Mentor-Mentee program may be a helpful method to give both students and mentors more time to learn and practice writing. It may work in the formal school setting in the city but it did not work in our community possibly due to various reasons. Firstly, our students and mentors live in a different reality than students who attend formal school. They need to work to help support their family. One of our Mentor had to miss classes because he was away at sea fishing with his family. He only managed to teach twice out of the 9 classes. Another mentor was busy washing clothes at one of the Omadal resident’s house during at least two of the classes. Despite that, this particular Mentor managed to attend 4 classes. Secondly, during the high tide, some of our Mentors couldn’t find transport (sampan/wooden boat) to go to Pondok Iskul. Hence they had to miss the class. Finally, the Mentors were shy to teach and took some time to warm up to the idea of speaking in front of a group.

    Despite the challenges, our 7th class and 8th class saw the attendance of 3 Mentors with at least 10 to 16 students. However, that did not last as the attendance dropped in the next class. Due to that, we decided to put this program on hold while we find ways to improve it.

  • Iskul 2nd Strategic Planning Meeting and Iskul’s first Annual General Meeting

    The team begins preparation for Iskul 2nd Strategic Planning Meeting and Iskul’s first Annual General Meeting (AGM). We have searched for the venue, deliberated on the dates, curated the agenda, drafted the official invitation letters for the event, and finally, purchased the flight tickets for our Headmistress and Field Coordinators.

    Following the successful Strategic Planning Meeting which was held early 2017, the management team finds it crucial to hold the second meeting to reflect on the past year and to review plans for the following year. Compared to the first meeting which was only held between three core members from the management team, this meeting included our Headmistress, Pn Roziah and Field Coordinator, Aida, from the operation team. They spent their first fasting week here in Kuala Lumpur, away from home in Omadal Island! The meeting schedule was hectic as we attempted to discuss and resolve as many issues as we can. In conjunction with this planning meeting,

    Iskul also holds it’s first Annual General Meeting (AGM) and we were joined by our committee members, advisors and donors as we presented our vision, missions, challenges, financial summary for 2017 and plans for year 2018/2019. We received constructive and valuable feedback from them and we look forward to ensuring that this year, Iskul will be on track!

    The faces behind Iskul! (From left: Ee Chia, Aida, Kak Roziah, Hui Ling)

  • Roundtable to Discuss Methodology of Participatory Assessments with Bajau Laut & Neighbouring Communities

    On 11th August 2017, Iskul Sama Dilaut Omadal was invited by UNHCR to attend the Roundtable to Discuss Methodology of Participatory Assessments with Bajau Laut & Neighbouring Communities at Sandakan Styles Hotel. The objectives of this roundtable are to exchange information and share potential common challenges, as well as to prepare for the planned consultations and participatory assessments with Bajau Laut communities settled on the land and neighbouring communities.

    The session intended to build the participants capacity and to develop a framework for implementation for the participatory assessments and consultations. These should be conducted with considerations of these communities’ situation, the best approaches to outreach, and good practices in conducting participatory assessments and consultations.

    There were 22 participants from various background such as academician, government agencies, anthropologist, activists and few come from humanity NGOs in Malaysia. Ee Chia and Shafiyyah shared about Iskul Sama Dilaut Omadal, from how we started, the challenges and problem that we are facing on the ground, and milestones Iskul has achieved over the couple years.

  • Annual Field Visit & Induction with Iskul’s first Field Coordinator

    The management team made the second visit for the year represented by Ee Chia. The visit while it was in conjunction with attendance to the invitation to the UNHCR Roundtable on Bajau Laut in Sabah in Sandakan. The brief 5-day visit from 5 – 9 August was also critical to follow-up on permissions from District Officer and Ketua Kampung to build Pondok Iskul on Omadal Island.

    Dr Hj Chacho Bullah, Semporna District Officer has written a support letter for the construction of Pondok Iskul and recognising Iskul as a citizen initiative to provide basic education to the stateless Bajau Laut community residing at Omadal Island. The recognition provided us with the confidence to continue the project and injected a boost of faith that this initiative is a welcomed one. It was an important milestone marking the 2nd anniversary of Iskul.

    Besides the meeting with the District Officer, Ee Chia also took time to provide a brief induction with Iskul first Field Coordinator – Roza, observed classes and conducted meeting with Headmistress, Mastal Arikik and students to find out challenges they still faces.

    During this visit, it was also decided that a monthly allowance of RM 100 be provided to Headmistress, Pn Roziah for her management of Iskul operation base as well as a decision to increase the food budget from RM 1 per meal to RM 2 per meal for Iskul students.

  • The First Annual Assessment Visit

    The Board of Trustee (Trustees) conducted our first annual assessment visit to Iskul Sama diLaut Omadal from 14 to 30 September. Hui Ling and I flew to Semporna to meet Adzmin and Shafiyyah at our own expenses. This 17-day trip provided us better understanding of Iskul’s classes, students, Mastal Arikiks (little teachers in Bajau) and the headmistress. As insightful as the trip may be, however, it was not without challenges.

    The first challenge was the security risk. Two days before our depature, news reported kidnapping of a fisherman off Semporna water. Our dive operator friends advised us against staying on the Omadal island. Interestingly, local islanders feel otherwise. Semporna town residents find it dangerous to travel to non-touristy islands i.e. Omadal but the islanders disagreed. Honestly, we were worried for many days, before and during the visit, especially on our trip to and fro Omadal. For security reasons, when in Omadal, we reported our presence to the General Operation Force’s (Pasukan Gerakan Am, PGA) base. We randomised our visits to the island and stayed a total of 10 nights. PGA advised us against roaming around when darkness sinks in. Overall, throughout the visit, we didn’t wander too far off the kampung areas. We find the island pleasant to visit especially to interact with Bajau Laut children as they gather in the evening to play. However, this security risk made it infeasible for outsiders like us to work in Omadal.

    Throughout our stay, we conducted (i) seven Focus Group Discussions of threes with most of our students, (ii)13 individual interviews with our students, little teachers and headmistress,(iii) two impromptu tests for both our students and little teachers and (iv) observations as ways to collect data to understand Iskul better. Hui Ling and myself also taught a few classes which helped us to understand why our little teachers splitted the students into smaller group for better management. It was a joy to see our students eagerness in learning and wanting more classes. They were proud of their new Iskul’s t-shirt and wore it for all classes. They also displayed a persistent spirit in completing all test questions despite not knowing the answer.

    Unfortunately, our in-class observation showed that our Mastal Arikiks are weak in teaching. Students were taught to memorise without understanding what they were learning. The class typically began with the little teachers writing on the board and students copied what was written. After about 45mins, the little teachers read out the words, but  always explaining what it means. Futhermore, their teaching methods and class control lack creativity and fun elements.

    The difference between the students’ eagerness in learning and the Mastal Arikiks’ lack of enthusiasm and teaching skills is apparent. Our little teachers had no teaching plans and repeated words taught previously. We were disappointed at this discovery. However, we understand that our Mastal Arikik are still young and they don’t have the capacity to teach like teachers. Their teaching methods possibly reflects how they learn in school (which indicates a greater problem in our national education system)! Hence, we invited a friend, Cikgu Wai Yan to guide our MA on how to prepare lessons before class.

    Nonetheless, a few students can read/write/recognise A-Z, 1-50, certain words, while the rest are still learning. Together with the Mastal Arikiks and headmistress, we reshuffled the classes according to the students’ level. As our fund was running low and to reevaluate our young teachers’ teaching motivation we resolved to remove their RM50 monthly allowance for the next six months from October 2016 to March 2017. As a result, two Mastal Arikiks who recently joined us quitted. They even discouraged other children from teaching in Iskul without allowance. Thankfully, our three founding Mastal Arikik decided to continue teaching despite no allowance.

    Another shocking discovery is our Mastal Arikiks’ poor school results. Their grade for Bahasa Malaysia and Mathematic are below 40 marks (fail). This shattered our initial assumption that our little teachers pass all their subjects in school.

    Hence, we refocus the project into two fold. Firstly, to provide basic literacy to the stateless Bajau Laut children. Secondly, to build capacity of rural students in Malaysia. We want to build young leaders within these two communities.

    Therefore the next one year, our focus will be:

    • To build the capacity of our young teachers so they can teach
    • To fundraise to build a structure for Iskul so that the children have a proper place to learn
    • To elevate the self-esteem of out students – to empower them to become assistant MA to teach their friends, and hopefully they can become MA later.
    • To hire a field coordinator to support the Mastal Arikik, students and headmistress as well as to become communicator between them and the Trustee and more

     

    The assessment trip was intense, we had so many ideas but we can’t implement them without being there. The funding coupled with the security issue made it hard for us to work in Omadal. Nonetheless, we are resolved to continue to support Iskul and to build leaders among the stateless and local communities in Semporna!