Education is critical to breaking the relentless cycle of poverty, empowering individuals with the right skills needed to learn and grow, improving their lives and the communities around them.

The NTA supports a number of schools throughout East Indonesia, these are located in poor, rural farming communities. These schools face a number of challenges, primarily attracting qualified teachers. Decent, qualified teachers are critical in not only delivering education but fostering the lifelong desire to learn and constantly improve.  

At NTA supported schools, 60% of teachers are ‘Honorary Teachers’ known as ‘Guru Honor’. These teachers are typically recruited from local communities and often have no qualifications or experience other than completing High School. Some of them have completed basic theoretical training but have no practical experience. Despite natural ability and their best intentions, these teachers face a daunting task in teaching. With little experience and training it is difficult for the ‘Guru Honor’ to deliver the effective and creative education that students desperately need.

As surveys on the ground have shown, teacher in these remote schools have often very no or very limited  teacher-books at hand, and are therefore required to improvise on how to deliver the curriculum material to their students. Whilst students are often forced to share the students books, this is not an option for the teacher in the classroom.

The NTA has been providing teacher training and curriculum books in West Timor for many years, this training program is in extremely high demand from schools and is consistently at the top of their request list for NTA support. Courses run three days and participants are required to complete projects that focus on practical training techniques including: problem solving in the class, developing lesson-plans, creative stimulation of students and remote learning techniques. Developed based on consultation with local schools, these courses follow national educational guidelines. The NTA works closely with professionals from local universities and the Education Department to consistently deliver the most effective, up to date courses. NTA teacher training also creates many opportunities for participants, opening the way for teachers to progress further through local government programs.

Building on proven success in West Timor, there have been ongoing requests to expand the teacher training programs throughout NTA supported regions.  It is with your continuing support and contributions, the NTA iwill grow and build on these courses, expanding their reach. This winter the NTA is seeking $10,000 which will enable us to:

·       Prepare an effective implementation of teacher training in new areas ($1000).

·       Run 2 3-day training sessions over the first 2 years, which will include the upskilling of 50 teacher in remote schools of Flores ($7000).

·       Provide essential Teacher-handbooks in schools with limited resources ($2000)

·       Established trained ‘Guru Honor’ in regions in dire need of educational support.