Educating Special Students

Name: Educating Special Students
Uploaded: 2020-11-13T01:50:01Z
Duration: 20 min 32 s
Description: Istining Rahayu, 48, has a dream that all children with special needs or disabilities will have the opportunity to enjoy education. For these children, Isti has set up a skill training school for their empowerment.

Istining Rahayu, 48, has a dream that all children with special needs or disabilities will have the opportunity to enjoy education. For these children, Isti has set up a skill training school for their empowerment.

Regina Rukmorini

· 5 minutes read

“I hope the children can be engaged in business activity. They can later teach and inspire other disabled peers,” said Isti in Mungkid, Magelang regency, Central Java, on Tuesday (10/11/2020).

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Isti established the school named Surya Bunda in 2017 in Wanurejo village, Borobudur district, Magelang regency. She spent her own money of Rp700 million to build the school. In the initial phase, its students were youngsters with special needs like those suffering from autism and Down syndrome, aged 10 to 25.

I hope the children can be engaged in business activity.

As of 2020, Isti has broadened its coverage to include children with physical and mental disabilities. Therefore, its education is oriented to skills training that can be arranged any time. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Isti has since June organized 10 skill training sessions, each with 20 participants.

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The primary skill taught is that of making begel, an iron brace component to hold metal bars in concrete blocks or reinforced concrete columns. The skills training takes place on the terraces and side yard of the school.

Isti said nearly all students of Surya came from poor families. For this reason, Isti provides the skills training, costing Rp5 million per session on average, free of charge. The cost is borne by Isti’s private fund.

Instead of paying, the trainees from the disadvantaged families, earn money from the iron braces they produce. Usually the braces made by the students are marketed through four construction material stores owned by Isti and her two friends. The money from the begel sales is partly kept as savings and turned over to their parents.

Isti is happy to be able to privately finance the activity of the school she opened without involving other parties such as the government. “As I have nothing to do with any other party, I don’t need to submit financial accountability reports. It’s enough for me to be responsible to God,” she pointed out.

Her own child

Isti, as an entrepreneur, was originally motivated to open a school for children with special needs because her own child, Afandi Herman Jaya, is affected by autism. When she realized something was different in her child, Isti and her husband sought alternative therapy and schools for Afandi. This was done when Afandi was 1.5 years old.

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However, Isti and her spouse failed to find a suitable school or therapy for their son. They were getting anxious, which was even more so as they discovered several residents in the vicinity with the same problem. These people had children with special needs but had not yet to find the right school for them. “We finally considered building a school and making our own curriculum,” she said.

The school she cherished was opened in August 2017. At first it only had five students with 11 teachers. Isti ran the school with the curriculum she prepared after asking about it and discussing the matter with her contemporaries working as teachers of extraordinary or special schools. But when it was applied, the process of learning was a complete failure.

Students were never at ease in classrooms and always wanted to go out. During drawing lessons, they broke crayons and colored pencils. “Teachers were under stress and the children were no less stressed out,” she related.

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Isti later decided to apply her own educational method. She chose skills training. The first thing that struck her was to teach students how to make iron braces. Once in a while she involved players of micro, small and medium enterprises to give skill instruction to students.

The skill training program turned out to be accepted and followed by students with special needs. Nevertheless, it hasn’t been easy to teach them. Sometimes they are hard to concentrate, complaining, even fighting with their peers. Some of the teachers couldn’t stand handling these children with special needs so that they quit one after another. Now only three teachers are left.

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With the passage of time, the number of students is increasing. To make sure that each skill training program is followed by different participants, Isti handles the process of enrollment and selection herself. She normally receives and selects would-be enrollees at her Surya Jaya construction shop.

She selects students by observing how they interact with their surrounding environment, including the way they pick or use the objects at the construction shop. “I’m observing and scrutinizing to ascertain whether we can handle the children or not,” said Isti.

She is grateful that the education she offers has proven to be beneficial. As acknowledged by parents, their children have experienced behavioral development and change. While previously they had difficulty in interacting and communicating with others, now most of the children can open themselves and start their relations with peers and teachers.

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In 2020, Isti has passed 15 students already in possession of skills. Yet their activity at home continues to be monitored. At the same time, Isti has admitted more students with various physical disabilities. The consideration is the children with special needs already handled by Isti can learn to behave more properly from physically disabled students.

“On the other hand, physically disabled students can also learn skills from children with special needs already capable of making certain products,” she indicated.