Since 2021, Dorfen has served as a school principal at three different schools in succession. In 2025, he began serving at the school that is now one of KREASI Morotai’s partner schools. Throughout his career journey, he had never attended school principal training until 2026, when his school began receiving support from KREASI Morotai.
“All this time, I had never thought about a leader who continues to grow. This training made me see that in a different way,” said Dorfen.
At the school he currently leads, Dorfen has built various learning practices that focus not only on academic aspects, but also on shaping students’ character. He believes that the learning process begins from the moment students enter the school environment, not only inside the classroom.
Students are encouraged to keep the environment clean and throw trash in the proper place whenever they find it in the school area. In addition, Dorfen also conducts classroom learning supervision to directly observe the teaching and learning process, students’ responses, and the approaches used by teachers. These two practices are part of his efforts to maintain the quality of learning at school.
Through the KREASI Morotai training, Dorfen became increasingly aware that school leadership is a continuously developing process and requires ongoing learning spaces so that existing practices can become more focused. He also realized that improving school quality does not depend only on the principal, but also on strengthening teachers’ capacity as an important part of the learning process. He then committed to encouraging the teachers at his school to take part in KREASI training as part of efforts to strengthen learning sustainably at the school.
“I am very grateful that KREASI is present and has provided training for us. I gained a lot of new knowledge that is very useful for school development,” he said.
With this perspective, Dorfen is committed to strengthening the practices that are already running at the school while also opening learning spaces for himself and the teachers. He believes that better schools grow from leadership that continues to develop and from the willingness to learn together with the entire school community.
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KREASI (Collaboration for the Education of Indonesian Children) is a program to improve the quality of education by strengthening literacy, numeracy, and character education. KREASI in Pulau Morotai is managed by Save the Children and implemented by Stimulant Institute, with funding from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), as well as support from the Government of Pulau Morotai and Indonesia’s Local Education Group, led by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (Kemendikdasmen) and the Ministry of Religious Affairs (Kemenag).
Writer: Ayutama Putri Jordy | Editor: Andika Ramadhan | Photo: Ayutama Putri Jordy/KREASI/Yayasan Guru Belajar/Save the Children