When The Sorowako Mine Took Part In Igniting Classroom Spirit

JAKARTA — Hirwaty Aris still remembers the feeling of pride. At that time, when her name was called to the stage to receive a scholarship, she was full of happiness. Now, the same feelings have occurred, not for herself, but when she witnessed children standing on the same stage.

“I was proud when I was called to the stage to receive my scholarship back then. Now I feel proud again when the children received their scholarships,” she said.

Hirwaty lives in Sorowako, East Timur, a nickel mining area which not only has richness under the earth, but also beginning to take care of its future above land.

Behind the stirrings of industry, another pulse is growing slowly: children who came to school each morning bring with them a noble dream of becoming a teacher, technician, nurse, or engineer.

For most of them, their families are daily workers and local people who, for years, have lived beside industrial areas. School is not only a place to learn. It is a bridge to attain a bright future.

The bridge has been built through the Sorowako Educational Foundation or Yayasan Pendidikan Sorowako (YPS), which has managed education from kindergarten to polytechnic, supported by PT Vale Indonesia Tbk, Member of MIND ID or Mining Industry Indonesia, the Holding State-Owned Enterprise for the Mining Industry.

Seventy percent of the students in the foundation came from underprivileged families living around the mining areas. There is even a kindergarten especially for children of local people and not for children of company employees.

The Vale scholarship program, which has been running since the beginning of 2000, covers school costs, uniforms, books, to school supplies.

For families such as Hirwaty’s, such assistance is not only about money but about the trust that the future of the children can be different.

“We hope that the local children can go to universities and be competitive. I would like to see my children more successful than me,” she said.

The dream now look brighter. At the upper level, Sorowako Polytechnic is present as an industrial talent development center in the eastern region of Indonesia. About 70 percent of its students come from East Luwu – and what makes it different from other vocational institutions is one thing: freedom.

Graduates from Sorowako Polytechnic are not bound by the rule of working in the company of establishment. They are free to determine their own career, given a diploma and at the same time, an official competency certificate from the Professional Certification Body or Lembaga Sertifikasi Profesi (LSP).

“Other companies establish polytechnics for their own talent pooling. But for us, the graduates would be free to seek employment from whatever source,” said the Chairman of YPS, Firman Fauzie.

As a result, a number of companies are now actively monitoring the graduates of Sorowako Polytechnic, believing that the graduates are ready to work without having to be trained.

The schools under the foundation have also adopted the Cambridge curriculum for science and mathematics, providing the children of East Luwu an education standard similar to students in big cities.

In the midst of the ambition towards Golden Indonesia 2045 or Indonesia Emas 2045, the story of Sorowako reminds us of one matter frequently forgotten: the wealth of natural resources is only meaningful if the people living around it also grow through education.

In East Luwu classrooms, the golden generation is being developed based on one dream, for a brighter Future of Indonesia.