EXPELLED CHILDREN FROM OTHER SCHOOLS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME AT SMP PGRI SORONG CITY.

Author: Maria Baru, 12 January 2024, 9:59 WP

Sekolah Menengah Pertama (SMP) Persatuan Guru Republik Indonesia (PGRI) Sorong City has been a workshop school for many years. The school accepts transfer students who have even been expelled from other schools for failing to read, many alpas, and children who are unruly or said to be naughty.

Gasing, a teacher who has worked there for more than 20 years, dispels the myth that SMP PGRI is an outcast institution. According to him, SMP PGRI is a good school because it always accommodates children who are expelled from other schools due to lack of literacy, absence from class, and naughty actions until they are expelled by schools that are considered standard and well-known in the community.

People say waste school, but we say workshop. SMP-PGRI is not a dump school. PGRI is the best school. I believe that this applies to other schools as well. No effort has been made to rebuild children who have been discarded, abandoned, and ignored by well-regarded educational institutions. We, the teachers here, are like that when children are thrown into PGRI junior high school. We build children and strive to give them the best until they grow up. We are looking for alternatives for unruly and often lazy schoolchildren. Gassing told suarapapua.com on Thursday, January 11, 2024, that he could not immediately remove the child because his fate was still long.

Kalasina Talutu, a teacher from Ambon who has worked as an ASN teacher in Sorong since 1990, made the statement.

Front page of Sorong PGRI junior high school. (Maria Baru-Suara Papua)

He stated that SMP PGRI, a private school on the outskirts of Sorong City, often rescues Papuan and non-Papuan children from well-known schools that are discarded.

According to Kalasina, SMP PGRI accepts children who are naughty, lazy in school, and absent from class. In this school, although it has a limited number of teachers and facilities, teachers patiently guide the children until the completion of junior high school.

Papuan and non-Papuan children who were expelled from well-known schools in Sorong City were accepted. All our children are loved. We make them with great patience. We asked their parents to report problems in the school environment, give advice to children, and close with a prayer. We don't usually use harsh words, let alone physical actions. In his opinion, it will only add problems for students.

Head of Pgri Sorong Junior High School, Samuel Y. Sembay, hopes that the local government, especially the Education Office, will not discriminate against teachers and students, including their facilities. According to him, all students receive the same lessons and curriculum, and the goal is the same: to build resources for the next generation of Papuans.

We have a shortage of teachers, especially teachers of mathematics and other subjects. In addition, we have sent a letter to Dinas, but there has been no response. Dinas people once gave us a teacher request format where we could enter all the teachers we needed. Information has not been available to date, Sembay said.

It is the hope of the office to pay attention to schools in the suburbs because all schools face the same lessons and curriculum and want to build the nation's children. All schools must have specific training. He emphasized that teacher capacity-building activities are not limited to specific schools.

News Sources:  https://suarapapua.com/2024/01/12/smp-pgri-kota-sorong-selalu-tampung-anak-anak-buangan-dari-sekolah-lain/