Children Environmental Education in Suruh Village, Gunungkidul.

From 2007, SATUNAMA has provided development assistance to Suruh sub-Village, Gedangsari, Gunungkidul. In 2009, the Mobile Library was engaged to assist the site. They provided environment education in Gedangan II elementary school and PKK Hargomulyo kindergarten each Tuesday.

“We are facilitating environmental education in kindergarten using a participative and creative learning method. We do arts and craft, storytelling, watching movies, playing, and singing. These activities encourage children to be concerned about their environment. In Suruh, it is difficult to get access to educational infrastructure. The community sometimes can’t afford if. This kindergarten is a trial project because the village didn’t have a kindergarten before,” said Adriyani. She added that the kindergarten doesn’t have a building and uses the sub-village hall as their class room. Environmental education needs to be introduced earlier to create a generation that is concerned about their environment and preserving organic farming. 98% of students in that kindergarten are farmers’ children.

The Mobile library also provides an extra subject at Gedangan II elementary school. There are 56 students from grades IV, V, and VI. This Environmental Education subject utilized with methods such as group discussions, games, watching movies, observations, and field classes.

Villagers in Suruh mostly work as farmers, but the young people choose to earn a living in urban areas. The older generations don’t want their children to become farmers. Villagers think that future agricultural sector earnings are not promising.  

“The assistance from SATUNAMA is intended to explain the potential of agriculture for young people.  We have created the Children’s Field School to practice organic farming. We use this to campaign about organic farming that is environmentally friendly. Indirectly, this activity criticizes their parents who are still using conventional agricultural methods. We hope they will change to organic farming methods that can reduce their dependency on the external inputs. They could use their local seeds, fertilizer from their cattle, and produce their own pesticides,” said Adriyani.   

Because Gedangan II elementary school doesn’t have large landholdings, they rent the land for field experiments. Grade IV, V, and VI students then practice intercropping agriculture. Each two weeks, they observe the growth of their kleci potatoes and beans and how to manage pests. The field school encourages organic farming of crops which are appropriate for local conditions.