Help Educate East Bali Youth to be Future Leaders

Shared Success: School and the Environment

By: I Nyoman Kartya, EBPP Manikaji School Headmaster

Manikaji students’ most impressive achievements so far this year have been in their extracurricular programs, most notably EMpower, with members of the Student Council (OSIS) participating in team-building and leadership trainings at the Bali Woso Outbound camp in Bangli and tree planting on Saab Hill, high up Mount Abang slopes above Manikaji School, as their continued contribution to regenerate the forest following the forest fire that occurred during the last dry season.

To support our gender equality campaign, for girls’ inclusion in sports, Manikaji junior and senior high school students joined mixed-gender sports competitions between EBPP schools, securing third place in both volleyball and futsal. As the culmination of the Creative Projects, they presented their creative works, which addressed village issues such as dirt roads and tree planting through documentary journalism, gender equality and sexual harassment through short videos, and school dropout through posters to their parents and community leaders. Finally, during the parent engagement activity, they enthusiastically learned how to make various rhombus rice cakes for Hindu offerings with their parents.

Regenerative agriculture project

In the second year of their regenerative agricultural program, our students are successfully replication all they learnt in their 2023 school learning gardens on their own land. After determining the contours of the land with bamboo A frames, they skilfully shaped terraces, to ensure good drainage, and planted Vetiver grass (Chrysopogon Zizanioides) on the front edges to conserve soil & water and prevent landslides. They’re also producing liquid and solid organic compost to fertilize the soil, and with the guidance of EBPP Agriculture teachers, they planted a variety of vegetable seeds including carrots, pakcoy, green vegetables, eggplants, and tomatoes, which are thriving and produce bountiful harvests to meet the nutritional needs of their families.

Computer studies include simple essays for elementary students, basic presentations for junior high students, and using online games as computer learning tools for high school students.

Counselling activities involve handwriting analysis for high and junior high school students, while elementary students learned to create stories based on their drawings. In Art classes, students of all levels learn to draw on the themes of Education, Hindu Religious Holidays, and Gardening, then presenting their work in front of the class.

Finally, at the end of March, students took their Midterm assessments to measure their progress over three months of learning, based on teacher material.

All of these mark efforts to enrich the educational experience of Manikaji students, covering academic, extracurricular, agricultural, and mental well-being aspects.