Poor Children Must Get a Decent Education

Malang, IP – Abah Nuradi's house is always busy with the sounds of children studying. It is known that since 2011, this middle-aged man has opened free tutoring for children around the Polehan Village. The reason is that the majority of children from low-income families are able to get a better education. After about 9 years, Abah Nuradi's house is now known as the Learning House of Polehan Village. Then it becomes a gathering place for volunteers who care about education. It is known that at this time, almost all of the volunteers came from among students. However, not all volunteers come from Malang City, most of them come from outside the city. From the observations of Inspiration for Education, starting at around 15.30 WIB the children came one by one to Abah Nuradi's house. Religion-based habits seem to have been instilled in the Balajar Polehan House. All the children who came, not a single one forgot to say hello to the volunteers and also Abah Nuradi when they entered the study house. The children who had just arrived, sat at random and waited for the other friends to come. At 16.00 WIB, when the children had started to gather, the volunteers began to divide them into two study groups. Group one is those who want to learn how to design graphics. While the second group, filled with children who want to develop their interests and talents in terms of telling stories. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, children are always reminded by volunteers to apply health protocols to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Namely, maintaining distance, wearing masks or face shields that are already available, and washing hands with soap or using hand sanitizer. During this study, Nuradi, the founder of the Polehan Learning House, said that at first he wanted to build a free school for children. He did it, because he saw the surrounding environment which thought that education was not too important. The factor is because almost all of the children come from families with low social and economic welfare. The focus of the community at that time, even until now, some are still on meeting their daily needs. Like work, but for education it is only considered a formality. “Free schools cannot be realized until now, because there are no fees and donors. But I'm grateful, even though it's not a free school, but it can still run in the form of a free learning house. Because I'm an old man, now the younger brothers and sisters of these student volunteers are running. Right now I'm just monitoring,” said the man with the white beard. He added that after free schooling, it couldn't be formed. At that time, it was immediately transferred in the form of free tutoring or tutoring. With him and his wife as teachers, initially there were only 9 children who participated. However, after the help of volunteers who incidentally from students, the number of Polehan children who participated was increasing. "Don't let people know, but we will do it," he said. (was/sap)