My Parents, My Teacher

Thursday March 3rd 2022

Parents’ experiences for School from Home with their children

Pandemic has changed everything, as well as school. During this COVID-19 outbreak, all activities are conducted in limited scope. Since the government made a new regulation for school, students’ activities for learning must be done at home, or we call it school from home. In Al Azhar 55, we also have a program for school from home. We conduct class through Zoom meeting from Monday to Friday which starts at 08.00 a.m. to 11.30 p.m. We also carry out hands-on learning activities such as doing projects at home, and of course, guided by the teachers and helped by the parents.
This brings new experiences for parents in assisting students’ learning process at home, especially for grade 1. One of the parents from grade 1 said, “During this pandemic, there are many experiences in online learning for the students and parents. Indeed, the effects were felt by anyone but it also gave new experiences for students, teachers and parents. The effect was felt even deeper by 1st graders like my child, who had not been studying offline at school yet.
One of the positive effects I feel as a parent is I can see or monitor his progress in learning. However, of course, online learning is not effective as offline learning at school. The student will surely accept knowledge easier in a face-to-face teaching and learning at school than in an online scene.” Besides, she also said that internet connection can be an obstacle for parents in assisting their children during the online class. As a parent and also a teacher at home, she had to be more patient in assisting him, because her child is moody.
Whatever the reasons are, the impact of online learning can never be compared to offline learning for its lack of time and space, but doing nothing will be more useless. Although there are many challenges for assisting students’ school from home, this brings new advantages for the parents as well. They are already being very good teachers as well as a companion for their children at home. Hopefully, this will be our first and last time to have an online class and we will be back to school as soon as possible.

Testimony

Prof. Dra. Hj. Suwarsih Madya, M.A., Ph.D.

Amidst the globalized situation which poses challenges of which one is a possible threat to identity, yet provides ample opportunities to excel for those who possess the prerequisites, we need to equip our children as the continuing generation with necessary competencies—affective, cognitive, psychomotor and interactive. In other words, we need to help them grow and develop into total persons and this can be achieved through the whole-child development approach which ensures the development of all potentials. In addition to this is the need for developing some competence which enables the children to communicate globally. All of this will ensure that the children will develop their citizenships both at the national and global levels. How can this ideal development be realized?

If you want to find out about how efforts are made to develop children’s whole potentials, you can come to SD Islam Al Azhar 55 Yogyakarta. Here you can see how the four-year old school has grown fast due to the stakeholders’ trust to send their children to study here. With only 54 children in the first year, this school now has 185 students. These students are educated to respect and preserve the social-cultural environment by learning the local language (Javanese, including the script) and arts (dance). Simultaneously, they certainly learn the national language (Bahasa Indonesia) and national content, which is unquestionable since it is compulsory, and English, which has now become a global lingua franca; thus, a prerequisite for successful global communication. More importantly, children in this school also learn to practise their religion consistently. So, in this school children’s identity is rooted in the local culture, with nationalism and global awareness being inherently developed together with reliogiosity.

Does the whole-child development approach at SD Islam Al Azhar still give room for children to excel? In my belief, when all their potentials are developed, children will have a greater chance to excel and I can see the truth in my belief in this primary school. In the last two years, the students have made great achievements in various competitions held at the local and national levels–gold medals in English, math and science competitions (national), silver and bronze medals in IT competitions (national), silver and bronze medals at colouring and swimming competitions (local) to mention some.

In conclusion, SD Islam Al Azhar has given evidence of the right efforts of true education to develop both intelligence and character.

Prof. DR. Budi S. Daryono, M.Agr. Sc.

Testimoni Sebagai Orang tua menyekolahkan anak Di Al-Azhar 55

Sudah menjadi kewajiban bagi orang tua untuk memberikan pendidikan yang terbaik bagi putra putrinya. Tantangan untuk mendidik anak di Era Global dan Digital pun semakin besar, kita tidak bisa lagi membendung segala perubahan yang begitu cepat terjadi, dan harus mempersiapkan anak-anak supaya bisa survive dan sholeh/sholehah tentunya. Saat ini dunia bagaikan kampung, dimana tidak ada batas-batas untuk melakukan transaksi kehidupan, untuk itu anak harus bisa berkomunikasi dengan bahasa universal sebagai modal utama. Disamping itu, pendidikah Ahlak dan Aqidah harus diberikan secara dini sebagai dasar anak dalam menghadapi gejolak gelombang kehidupan. Atas pertimbangan tersebutlah, kami selaku orang tua memilih untuk menyekolahkan putra kami tercinta Hikari di Sekolah Islam, yang menggunakan dua bahasa pengantar, yaitu Al-Azhar 55.

Prof. DR. Budi S.Daryono, M.Agr. Sc.