Silent Path of Baduy Education

While other children of their age revel in going to school, Baduy children do not miss out on learning rigor, cultural values ​​or nature. They also have to assure their cultural values remain intact throughout time.

KOMPAS/AGUS SUSANTO

Mother and children playing guess the number of stones hidden in their palms in Balingbing Village, Kanekes Village, Leuwidamar District, Lebak Regency, Banten, Thursday (16/3/2023). Playing with children in simplicity is one of the inherent characteristics of the Baduy community.

Even though they are customarily prohibited from going to school, Baduy people seem to gain tranquility in life by adherence to cultural values ​​and interaction with nature. They are happy to build their knowledge naturally to ensure their cultural values do not get eroded by the outside world.

The customary prohibition of receiving formal education does not mean the Baduy people do not get engaged in the learning process.

They learn from oral tradition and exemplary deeds. Being deprived of school, Baduy children set themselves afoot on a silent learning path with nature and ancestral philosophy being sources of knowledge.

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> Baduy, Peaceful in Nature’s Embrace

Tiny-bodied Mila (8) sank into the vast stretch of paddy fields at Kanekes village, Leuwidamar district, Lebak regency, Banten, on Thursday afternoon (16/3/2023). She merrily ran around while blowing a trumpet she had made from reed. Kanekes village is in the Outer Baduy area (at Inner Baduy, people live even more reclusively).

For Baduy children, a paddy field is both a playing and learning ground. It took a fraction of two minutes for Mila to make the reed trumpet. "I have been able to make an empet-empetan since I was six because I frequently go to rice fields," she said about the reed trumpet.

Mila does not go to school. Baduy people speak Sundanese in local dialect. However, Mila is able to speak Indonesian as she has learned it from visiting tourists.

We do activities in the field, such as planting and harvesting, together with the help of relatives and neighbors.

Unlike Inner Baduy, Outer Baduy people are allowed to use communication gadgets even though their use is very limited because electricity is still prohibited.

That afternoon, Mila played at Samin's rice field, at a time when it was ready to be harvested. “We do activities in the field, such as planting and harvesting, together with the help of relatives and neighbors. They [children] learn about mutual cooperation in the fields," Samin (23) said.

ALBERDI DITTO PERMADI

Ana (12), a resident of outer Baduy and Ambu Misnah (49) weaves saut songket patterned cloth at her aunt's stall, Friday (28/10/2022). This child who was born in Balimbing village, Kanekes village, Leuwidamar sub-district, Lebak Regency, has been learning to weave since he was seven years old.

Children also learn how to manage the fields. After being harvested, a field should not be immediately planted with paddy seedlings so as to allow the soil time to recover and become fertile again.

The children also develop crafting and weaving skills. They make jarog, which is a bag made from tree bark.

Ana (12), from Kampung Balimbing, Outer Baduy, has been able to weave since she was seven years old. She is also able to read and write, which she learned from her neighbor, Marno (20), who is a student at the University of Indonesia.

Indigenous rights

At Outer Baduy, things have become more permissive. A number of Baduy residents are educated up to the undergraduate level. At Kanekes village, out of a total of 13,308 residents, there are 277 elementary school graduates, 132 junior high school and equivalent graduates, 36 senior high school and equivalent graduates, two diploma graduates and four bachelor graduates.

Meanwhile, at Inner Baduy, as told by Sardi (60), a resident of Kampung Cibeo, the people still firmly adhere to the custom-based prohibition on schools with he main goal being to resist the influence of modern life. People are expected to stay focused on their belief system to preserve local values.

"Understanding customary values is the priority in education,” he said, adding if education were only for material satisfaction and life amenities, it would drive people beyond limits and as a consequence, traditional values might be forgotten.

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> The Call of Baduy Culture

Asep Kurnia and Ahmad Sihabudin in their book Saatnya Baduy Bicara (it’s time for the Baduy to talk) (2010) write the Baduy ethnic has known and practiced education since existence under the homespun papagahan concept, with customary values being the basis of education. Papagahan education means learning from each other through oral tradition and exemplary deeds.

The community members are basically allowed to learn reading, writing and arithmetic because it is necessary. However, being seen only as complementary, the learning process to gain this knowledge is not formally institutionalized into school for fear of interfering with customary values.

While other children of their age revel in going to school, Baduy children do not miss out on learning rigor, cultural values ​​or surrounding nature. While seeing it as necessary to develop themselves as literate to enable them to interact with outsiders, they also have to assure their cultural values remain intact throughout time.

This article was translated by Musthofid.