Misool Community Education: supporting kindergarten and high school education in the villages of South Misool

 

at a glance

  • Established in 2011

  • Early years education in Fafanlap village

  • One kindergarten

  • Two full-time kindergarten teachers

  • Partnership with 3 high schools around Misool         

  • Delivering High school conservation modules and field visits

  • Working with over 300 high school students

fafanlap kindergarten

The success of marine protection, monitoring and rewilding efforts depends on people. By engaging and uniting the local community we can build knowledge and create ocean stewards: this is the mission of our education project.

As part of the Misool Marine Reserve lease agreement with the local communities, we built a kindergarten (called Taman Kanak-kanak Baseftin Al-Ma'arif in Indonesian) in the village of Fafanlap. Construction began in 2011 with support from Seacology and WildAid.

Previously, Fafanlap has noted poor student retention in government schools with teachers reporting that students are not suitably prepared to benefit from classes. The kindergarten planned to address this issue and prepare younger children for primary school.

Fafanlap Kindergarten works with students aged 4-6 years old to provide early years education in preparation for school. In the 2022/2023 school year, 25 students attended the kindergarten. In 2023, we embarked on a refurbishment project to improve the kindergarten building.

 

high school education programme

Many young people from the local area will not pursue higher education due to socio-economic constraints, so this is an important time to build awareness about the relationship between ocean health and human health. In 2022, we launched a programme that delivers unique marine conservation modules to students in three high schools. The most motivated students have the opportunity to bring their theory to life and join our Reef Restoration Team in Kalig and Yillet to learn about coral transplantation techniques and monitoring.

Immediate results were reported such as, in one example, a student reprimanding their parents for removing a giant clam from the ocean. As the students share knowledge with their friends and family, they have more power than an external source (such as an NGO or government body), thereby creating an opportunity for this knowledge to spread expansively through all demographics.