Help Educate East Bali Youth to be Future Leaders

First, we would like to congratulate the students who have advanced to a higher level in this first semester of the 2022-2023 academic year, as well as those who have passed the final semester exams, and the new students who have just enrolled. There were 15 new students consisting of 12 elementary school students and 3 high school students. This new school year was greeted with great joy by all the students, especially when our teachers’ distributed stationery, sanitation equipment such as masks and hand sanitizers, as well as new uniforms for all students.

77th Indonesian Independence Day Celebrations

After missing 2 years due to the covid19 pandemic, finally EBPP students were able to celebrate Independence Day together. The activities held included flag ceremony, sports competitions, dramas and several artistic and song creativity performances. Manikaji School’scompetition placings were: 1st place in the tug of war competition, 2nd place in bottle fishing competition, 3rd place in coin collection competition. Other activities staged were, an Education Drama "A Choice for a Better Future", a song performance of "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You", and Modern Dance.

Mid-semester Exams for the 2022/2023 academic year

Held in mid-September, the exam measures student learning progress and the computer-Based National Assessment for 8^th grade students and 5^th grade elementary students in October. These levels of students were selected according to the ministry of education and culture because they already have experienced the learning process and contributed to the learning outcomes measured in the National Assessment. 

Cultural arts and traditional dance

The traditional Balinese dances studied/practised are: Rejang Dewa, Puspanjali, and Merak Angelo dances. In cultural arts activities, they learn material according to a predetermined theme and immediately practice. Other activities include making motivating sentences, making various posters such as: Balinese language posters. and Math posters, and draw basic sketches, line and plane making and pencil colour grading techniques.

Counselling guidance

Our School Counsellor, Ms Nova, continued her weekly student counselling, handling personal cases and providing assistance for several confidential cases after their focussed exercises and meditation every morning. The latest topic is “managing time" with animated videos and finally making wall clocks that are displayed in classrooms.

EMpower Extra-Curricular

In their extra-curricular activities, students worked on creative programs they’d selected such as: community interviews, taking photos about problems around them that focus on nature conservation, making Power Points, practicing music, editing videos, and making posters, then collecting the information according to their topic. The results of these activities will also be used as campaign material. In addition, for the new group of students they learned about nutrition, cooking classes and visits to monthly health post for the baby and mother, then continued with basic computer learning activities, such as: Microsoft World, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Power Point.

We would like to thank all the donors who have helped, so that so far the students at Manikaji school can continue to study well.

All Manikaji School students were very happy when the government authorised return to classroom learning on 7^th of Marchwhen teachers immediately distributed module books for all study subjectsfor the 2nd semester academic year 2021-22.

Government exams to graduate Elementary, Junior and Senior High School

The exams that all our students have been waiting for,taken offline:

• Senior high: 11-14 April, 2 students;
• Junior high: 25-27 April, 6 students;
• Elementary: 17-19 May, 6 students.

We’re very pleased to report that all students graduated!

We were pleased also that our Balinese traditional dance classesresumed, focusing onthe Rejang Dewa, Puspanjali, Merak Angelo, and Margapati dances.

Extra-curricular EMpower program activities

In addition to the main learning topics of reproductive health, nutrition, job & university readiness andPhotovoices, all of our junior and senior high school students enjoyed a full day history and culture field trip in April to the Royal family’s Puri Karangasem and the two water places of Taman Ujung and Tirta Gangga where they also held elections for the new Student Council (OSIS) committees, followed by many fun competitive games, finally returning to Desa Ban at 5.30 pm when all happy students returned to their homes.

Our EMpower instructors, in collaboration with Ban village government held meetings to synergize with children's parents and Manikaji community leaders to create parent committees and newpararem (customary laws). 

The highlight of this academic year though was being able to hold our first National Education Day event since 2019 on 5th of May, when students of all 6 EBPP schools gathered in Daya to enjoy various competitive events, including intelligence quiz, chess and face painting. In the competitions, Manikaji elementarystudents won 1st place, 2nd place for junior high and 3rd place at the senior high school level. In addition to competitions, the event was enlivened by music performances and songs.To close the event, EBPP Education Coordinator Mr Suarjana, had a graduation announcement:Our two senior high school who took their final exam had passed! Congratulations!!

Students’ health: We were please that our ENT (ear-nose-throat) examinations for all students were conducted in May and all students were happy to have clean ears and full hearing!

The final activities this month were: measurement all studentsfor new uniforms, a graduationcelebration for our grade 12 students, and distribution of students’ report books,attended this year by allstudents’ parents, with the aim of establishing active communication between teachers, students, and their parents.