Trip to Melbourne

Sunday January 31st 2021

A Great 7 Days Journal in Having Study Visit

On August 31-September 8, 2019, four delegates of Al Azhar 55 Islamic Primary School Yogyakarta went to Melbourne, Australia for a study visit. The visit’s main purpose is to broaden our knowledge on how education, mainly the learning process, works in such a developed country, and what the outcomes will be like. It is also to open a network for the school’s immersion program. The delegates visited and gained knowledge from Minaret Islamic Primary School, Essex Heights Primary School, Victoria University and Education Department of Victoria.

In Melbourne, independent (autonomous) learning is shaped since in the foundation level (TK B/Kindy), when pupils start to prepare their books and the other stuff themselves. Victorians realize that knowing nothing, making mistakes and facing challenges are normal and parts of the pupils’ process of learning. In turn, they will have control on their own learning achievements, not dependent on that of parents’, teachers’, or other people’s.

What makes it even more interesting is that the learning in the foundation level (TK B/Kindy to grade 2) focuses on making pupils learn to be independent, to understand themselves and the environment, to be confident as well as to communicate with the people around them.

We also learn that Victorian Curriculum F-10 prepares students to study until grade 10. Meanwhile, the upper grades, 11 and 12, are focused on job-ready learning. In addition to that, we also find out that surprisingly, Bahasa Indonesia is in the top 4 of the 40 LOTE (Language other than English) that is learned in the Curriculum.

The aim of Victorian Curriculum is to ‘internationalise the education’, which means internationalizing its education process so as to make students master more than 1 language and then able to communicate with the people from all around the world appropriately and effectively. It aims to make them able to see the world with the perspectives of global citizens as well.

The highlights of Victorian Curriculum lay on literacy, numeracy and inquiry programs. The literacy program is realized in the reading log and journal writing, numeracy in EMU (Extended Math Understanding) and inquiry in student-centered learning. The learning process implements the SOLO taxonomy that accommodates surface-to-deep knowledge. Surface learning covers finding, describing, summarising, naming, following, etc. Meanwhile, deep learning includes connecting, constructing, creating, proving, explaining, applying, predicting, etc.

Then, each year, teachers should attend a professional development program for at least 6 hours and conduct action research in their classes to monitor and follow up on their own teaching. Victorian Curriculum also emphasizes sustainability. It teaches us how to preserve natural resources for the next generations, e.g. by reducing and sorting rubbish and declining their dependence on natural resources.

Al Azhar 55 Yogyakarta

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.