In the living room of her modest house in Afulu Sub-district, Nias Utara, the sound of a sewing machine is often heard in the late afternoon. The needle pierces through fabric again and again, echoing the daily rhythm of village life. In that corner of the room, Murniwati sits with her eyes fixed on folded cloth—clothes for neighbors, and quite a few for people she has never met. She does this work after coming home from school, once she has finished her role as a grade 1 primary school teacher.
The quiet atmosphere at home is very different from when she first taught grade 1 at one of the primary schools in Nias Utara.
“The children were just entering school, they didn’t know the rules yet. I was stressed too. Sometimes they pulled my bag, ran here and there,” she explained with a serious face.
Her way of teaching back then was still like most other teachers: lecturing in front, writing on the blackboard, students copying like adults bound by obligations and rules.
“I thought teaching grade 1 would be easy and fun,” she said. “It turned out to be the hardest, because I had never really experienced it myself.”
Slowly, that situation began to shift after she became involved in the Prgram of KREASI—a program to improve learning quality in Nias Utara that equips teachers with new approaches to literacy and numeracy. Through a series of trainings, Murniwati was selected as a Master Teacher (MT), a role that requires her not only to apply good practices in her own classroom, but, more importantly, to pass on more effective teaching methods to other teachers in her school.
“I used to think that teaching meant I had to talk a lot. But after receiving this knowledge, I understand that every child is unique, different in ability and in how they learn.”
During the first two weeks of the school year, she carries out simple assessments to find out her students’ basic abilities. From there, she adjusts the learning activities. Through the training, she also learned to assess not only academic ability, but also how students follow instructions and interact with their classmates.
The classroom that once felt disorderly is now livelier with laughter and conversation. She started using and making use of objects around the school—leaves, twigs, flowers, anything relevant and easy to find—as learning aids.
“The children arrange leaves into the shape of numbers,” she said. “They’re not just memorizing; they really understand it as a natural response when a truly fun situation is created.”
The children who once made her feel stressed now come to hold her hand every morning, cheerfully greet her, or ask her to fix their shoelaces before class begins.
Contextual approaches like that are not new in education theory, but in remote learning spaces like Afulu, they carry a fresh meaning. In a place where phone signal often drops and learning resources are very limited, creativity becomes a form of resilience.
“What matters is that they enjoy learning,” said Murniwati softly. “Once they enjoy it, they pick up lessons quickly.”
The transformation is happening not only in the classroom. Murniwati feels a new chapter unfolding within herself. She admits that she has become more patient—both with her students and with her own children at home.
“I used to get angry quickly,” she said. “Now I’m calmer. If my child makes a mistake, I hug them first before giving advice.”
The change is visible at home as well: she now advises her children gently, listening more instead of immediately scolding them. This warm approach is something she learned from KREASI’s training, which emphasizes the importance of a safe and loving learning environment.
But the journey of becoming a Master Teacher is like walking a long, quiet path. In the beginning, some fellow teachers were doubtful. “They said, don’t follow new methods too much or the children won’t be afraid of the teacher anymore,” she recalled.
It took a long time for her colleagues to begin trying the same approach. But over time, the results in her classroom became visible. Students were more polite, more active in asking questions, and their reading scores improved.
“Now other teachers are starting to be interested too. They sometimes sneak a look at how I teach, and some even ask because they’re curious to learn the way I do it.”
The Program of KREASI itself is part of an effort to strengthen primary education in 3T areas (underdeveloped, frontier, and outermost regions). According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) of Nias Utara in 2024, primary school participation is already high, but learning quality remains a major challenge—especially in remote areas like Afulu, which is more than 45 kilometers from the district capital and faces the Indian Ocean, known for its fierce waves. This is where the role of teachers like Murniwati becomes crucial: not only to teach, but to nurture a joyful learning culture from the far edges of Indonesia.
Today, she is often the go-to person for younger teachers at school. She helps them design assessments, shares how to create simple teaching aids from natural materials, or simply offers encouragement when they struggle with students who have difficulty focusing.
“I don’t want to keep it to myself,” she said. “If I can do it, other teachers should be able to as well. Because when teachers grow, children move forward too.” She hopes that these new approaches will not stop at training sessions, but continue to have a place in classrooms. For her, small, consistent steps are more valuable than big methods that are quickly forgotten.
In the late afternoon, after meetings or finishing her responsibilities as an educator, Murniwati returns to her sewing machine. There, she returns to another side of herself—quieter, more private. She says sewing teaches her the same things as teaching: precision, patience, and the awareness that every piece of fabric has its own shape and its own time to be joined together.
“Teaching is like that too,” she said, as she pressed the sewing machine pedal. “Children are like pieces of cloth; my job is to help them become something whole.”
She knows that not everything in the classroom can be solved in a day—just as not every seam can be neatened with a single press of the pedal. But that is exactly where perseverance proves itself.
For Murniwati, education does not stop at the classroom, and learning does not stop at a school desk. She weaves those two worlds into a steady daily rhythm—between thread and blackboard, between patience and resolve.
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The Program of KREASI or Kolaborasi untuk Edukasi Anak Indonesia (Collaboration for the Education of Indonesian Children) is funded by the Global Partnership for Education, developed by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, and the Ministry of Religious Affairs. KREASI is being implemented by Save the Children with Article 33 Indonesia nd support by the Government of Nias Utara. KREASI aims to improve the quality of education in Nias Utara by strengthening teaching, learning, and student development.
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Writer: Adzwari Ridzki | Editor: Andika Ramadhan | Photo: Adzwari Ridzki/KREASI/Article 33 Indonesia/Save the Children