Education by Region - Lembongan, Ceningan & Penida
When Bali Children Foundation first came to Nusa Lembongan in 2016, we saw the island had developed and changed tremendously from the nineties.
Throughout the eighties and nineties, fishing and seaweed farming was all the islanders were surviving on. As things changed and tourism became so important economically, many of the younger generations started working in hospitality. However, with the demise of tourism during the Pandemic, many went back to seaweed farming.
Lembongan is a very strong community, and throughout the Pandemic, they were very compliant with social distancing, wearing a mask, and doing everything they could to get through a difficult period.
The island has many tourism opportunities, but there is a real shortage of skills among the local youth, meaning people from other islands often move across to take the jobs.
With this in mind, in 2016 we developed an 8-year program to build English skills among the grades 4 - 12 children, so that by the time they graduate from Year 12 in 2024, we’ll have a cohort starting to come through with English language skills. This program includes English as a Foreign Language training - emphasising listening and speaking to prepare the youth so that they can grasp the jobs and all of the island management roles for themselves, instead of leaving these jobs to people coming from outside.
Bali Children Foundation’s EFL curriculum is delivered to almost 1,200 students on the island; in five elementary schools on Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan, followed by three more schools on Nusa Penida starting in July 2022. The curriculum is also delivered in one Junior High School and one senior high school on Nusa Lembongan.
We also deliver Remedial Literacy: Reading, Writing and Numeracy. This program gives the grades 1 – 3 children the capacity to read comfortably and it's delivered in a fun way, encouraging the children to seek out information from books and the internet. These lessons are delivered in the upgraded libraries and classrooms we worked on over the past year and the program uses interactive lessons to keep the children engaged in learning.
The third curriculum we deliver on Lembongan is STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) for grades 4-6. Our STEM curriculum emphasises technology and integrated subjects to connect disciplines and relate them to each other.
STEM provides remote elementary school children with access to computer learning and has a robust problem-solving emphasis. The Bali Children Foundation curriculum considers environmentally friendly sustainable solutions to many community challenges, including access to water, water safety, sustainable energy, waste management, forestry and soil conservation.
The children on Nusa Lembongan are very smart and creative and we’re pleased to see the progress they’re making. We expect our education programs in Lembongan to give the children the capacity to get a better job in the hospitality industry if that's the path they choose, and one day to become community leaders on their island.
See the video on our Lembongan Education Programs here:
