Scholarship / Chevening Leadership and Influence essay - Establishing a cost-free learning center [4]

Hello!
I am applying for Chevening scholarship and this is my answer for the leadership and influence essay.
Feel free to give your suggestions or corrections.

"Pojok Belajar" project

During my college days, I contributed in many kinds of teaching volunteers, lead a couple of college organizations and actively taught in a lot of non-formal institutions. When I was so active outside and rarely had time to go home, a reality hit me hard a year before I graduated in 2014. I was back to my home in Tangerang. It is not a small rural village, it is still located in one of the busiest city in Indonesia. However, the education has still not fairly covered for all major citizens. There were still lots of dropped outs who were unable to continue their education due to a funding matter. Learning problems were still commonly found among children who just entered school, mainly primary school. They started school without pre-education from their parents due to lack of knowledge. Meanwhile, it was an impossible thing for the parents to register their children to a kindergarten since it costed a lot of money. It resulted in a lot of children facing problems in reading and writing, also behavior problem. I felt the urgent need to do something.

Being the Chief of Event Division in the Youth Association. I decided to establish a cost-free learning center called "Pojok Belajar". The place used was a small building my family owned around the neighborhood. I started the learning center together with the members of Youth Association who were mostly college students. It took a lot of time and hard work to ensure them that this program will work, that it was not a time-wasting activity and will result in something positive. After it is settled and arranged, our initial focus was to help the children learn how to write and read.

It was not a smooth road to establish a learning institution in an environment where the people were still unaware about the importance of learning. As a leader, I need to encourage the volunteer as well as the students' parents to not give up when the children facing problems during the learning process. The education background that I have helps to set myself as their examples, coming the earliest and finished the latest, practicing teaching techniques, and doing lots of sharing sessions regarding our program. My responsibility is not ended in the volunteers itself. To manage the classroom well so that my class will be effective, I create the lesson plan and learning media. I designed the media mostly by myself, it is one way to influence the students to be creative.

It has been 4 years since the program has first started, 2 students have become 98 students. 3 volunteers have become 10 teachers who came from different background, college students, employees, even housewives. The number of textbooks we owned have been multiplied thanks to the donors and coverage from local media. The program is now widely known and a lot of people participate in funding. Moreover, our initial plan has achieved, for the people, especially parents, to realize the importance of learning and educating their children.

Scholarship / Mutual Networking in My Career - Chevening Networking Essay [3]

Hello. This is my answer for the Networking question. Feedback is welcomed and appreciated. Thank you in advance.

I apply networking on my daily basis

Chevening is looking for individuals with strong professional relationship building skills, who will engage with the Chevening community and influence and lead others in their chosen profession. Please explain how you build and maintain relationships in a professional capacity, using clear examples of how you currently do this, and outline how you hope to use these skills in the future.

As a teacher, I apply networking on my daily basis. I interact with students, teachers, lecturers, parents, practitioners, trainers and staffs from Ministry of Education who constantly come to monitor our school.

When I established the learning center back in 2015, I seek for supports from the local government, morally and financially. I built a relationship to the local leader known as Rukun Warga (RW) and he connected me to the government. The government reviewed our program and positively supporting by donating some books. I used my networking with the government to register the learning center as one under the Association of Early Childhood Education in (CITY). By joining the association, we got privilege to participate in activities and events such as yearly competitions, students' gathering, and Haaj training for kids (manasik haji) held by the association.

Meanwhile, in my professional teaching career, I attend a lot of teaching trainings and seminars either I was sent as school's representative or I individually joined in order to strengthen my professionalism in teaching. In a seminar held by Marshall Cavendish Book from Singapore, I met Mr. Yang, a practitioner who masters at early childhood education, I asked for his contacts and communicate through email about how to apply the right method for teaching the lower level students reading and writing. I then shared the knowledge to my fellow teachers in my school and foundation and create some programs out of it such as Literacy Program, Learning Corner, English Gaming and Reading Corner.

I also establish an excellent networking with lecturers of English Department of (UNIVERSITY). We worked together for an international event, The 4th ELITE International Conference. We presented a paper titled "Improving Students' Speaking Skill through Quartet Cards Game" a game I personally designed and developed for lower level students to improve their speaking skill using a fun game. The presentation brought bigger networking since the presenters and speakers come from different universities and countries such as UK, USA, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. They are impressed with our invention then we exchanged contacts and information regarding English teaching methods.

Moreover, I also establish a mutual networking with PTA (Parents-Teachers Association) the members consisted of the students' parents with various backgrounds such as lecturers, doctors, journalists, lawyers and many more occupations. When I work on the Literacy Day program, I need coverage from national TV so that the program will be well known not only in our school but also in other schools as well. With the help from PTA, I managed to invite DAAI TV to cover our program. The networking is also beneficial to connect our school to the professional writers, whose further become the speakers to the higher grade and share their knowledge about writing.

In the future, this broad networking in educational field is expected to be useful for the Chevening community especially those who specializing in education. We can participate or even develop programs within UK-Indonesia and utilize the networking I owned as our base.

Scholarship / Why I chose UK and the 3 Courses - Chevening Studying in UK question [3]

Hello, this is my answer to Studying in UK question, feedback is welcomed and appreciated, thank you in advance.

Outline why you have selected your chosen three university courses, and explain how this relates to your previous academic or professional experience and your plans for the future. Please do not duplicate the information you have entered on the work experience and education section of this form (minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

inclusive education

Inclusive education is not a novel term to education in Indonesia. Equalization for special children with learning difficulties has been encouraged by the government for a long time even since the year of 2000. Schools have also been encouraged to implement it. However, to say that it was just an encouragement without further actions may be correct since in 2018 reality says otherwise. There are still plentiful number of schools, mine included, that do not grasp the true concept of inclusive education. Even the majority of educators are still not familiar with the term inclusive education. In the end, special children have not been openly accepted in mainstream schools and when they do, mistreatment is still commonly found. Indonesia is lacking in human resources who are experts in this field. There are also no universities that have specifically opened majors in inclusive education. Therefore, UK, a country that has successfully implemented inclusive education on its whole study levels and whose universities have opened departments for inclusive education with a lot of experts and professionals inside, is my first choice.

My choices fall to these three university courses:
University (name), MA Special and Inclusive Education. The course will develop my knowledge and key concepts and issues related to special and inclusive education, enhancing my understanding of disciplinary and theoretical perspective. The compulsory modules about concept and contexts of inclusion align with my learning objective. It also offers optional modules such as Autism, Understanding Dyslexia, and Language Development. All fits my objectives.

University (name), MA Education (Inclusive Education). This program focuses my skills and builds my qualifications, knowledge and understanding to teach and support students in special and inclusive settings. The program combines the latest research with practical coursework so that it will ensure the learners are equipped to implement a range of evidence-based approaches and strategies. It also offers teaching methods and techniques in inclusion, a core course I need the most. For specializations, Early Childhood caught my interest since I work in a lower level students environment.

University (name), MA Special and Inclusive Education. This course offers a comprehensive focus on contemporary debates within special and inclusive education including local, national and international policies and approaches. It aligns with the core course: Debating and Researching Special and Inclusive education. For the optional course Communication and Literacy fits my learning objectives. The courses also cover family-understanding part for the special needs students.

My job as a primary school teacher and an activist who faces students with various learning difficulties and somehow was still unable to put the right method is the reason why I want to develop my current "regular" teacher career into a teacher who is an expert in the field of inclusive education that will be useful for the development of inclusion in my country. My background of academic in education also aligns with the course I am interested in. I am eager to learn and to apply the knowledge I will acquire to my country and my professional teaching development.

Writing Feedback / IELTS 2 - The values have been replaced with social status and wealth in how people see others [4]

Feedbacks are very much appreciated. Thank you :)

A person's worth nowadays seems to be judged according to social status and material possessions. Old-fashioned values, such as honour, kindness and trust, no longer seem important.

To what extent do you agree and disagree with this opinion?

Unlike the old days, values have been replaced with social status and wealth in how people see others. Society tends to respect those with money rather than those with admirable attitude. While it is undeniable that social status and material possessions play a part in leveling up people's worth, I strongly disagree if those are the only aspects considered in judging people's worth. In my opinion, there is nothing which can replace someone's good deeds for how their worth in society.

There are just too many cases where people with material possessions have it easy with everything. They can avoid law, get away with problems or have positions in government just by bribing the officials with big amount of money. Those are proofs that social status and material possession without values can lead into a toxic society. They may be seen as someone respectable for some people yet it will not last long. People will eventually leave when they have got what they want already.

On the other hand, those who stay true with their roots, keep showing kindness, and respect other people can earn a long time respect from society. Even if the material they possess is not as much, people will see the good side and even if it takes a long time, they will slowly earn respect and people will judge their worth from what they have done not from what they have possessed.

In conclusion, a person's worth may be judged by social status and material possession however it will not last long when it is not accompanied with great values. People with great values, however, can achieve a great worth even if the social status and material possessions are not owned.