My School is Green and Waste-Free is the title of a project module at one of the KREASI-supported madrasah ibtidaiyah in Morotai. The module was initiated by principal Kartika as a response to the environmental condition of her school. Kartika’s awareness of environmental issues grew after she joined a KREASI workshop on raising awareness about climate change mitigation in the education curriculum.
In the workshop, participants were invited to understand the importance of environmental issues while also reviewing the conditions of their respective schools. Kartika realised that her school was quite barren, still had unused land, and its waste management was not yet optimal. This understanding encouraged her to invite teachers and students to work together to create a greener, waste-free school, starting from building environmental awareness together.
Kartika’s efforts were strengthened through a climate change project module harmonisation workshop organised by KREASI on 7 October 2025. All the insights she had gained since September were then incorporated into the project module and arranged more systematically into three stages of activities: introduction, preparation of tools and materials, and practice.
When met at her school on 30 October 2025, Kartika shared that activities to raise environmental awareness were something new she carried out after receiving training from KREASI.
“By joining various KREASI activities, we are motivated to pay more attention to the environment. We had never planned planting activities in our project modules, even though our school has quite a large area of land. We didn’t have ideas like this before, but thanks to KREASI we received many ideas, inputs, and knowledge,” said Kartika.
Kartika explained that the first stage of the climate change project, the introduction, and the second stage, sorting plants, had been completed. They are now in the third stage, practice, by planting various types of plants, ranging from vegetables to medicinal plants, which are arranged as a living pharmacy. For larger-scale greening, they planted mango trees and tanjung trees, with plans to add more big trees in the future. Kartika’s awareness also extends to waste management, especially because the school is located close to the beach.
“We reuse plastic bottles and redesign them as decorations so that the living pharmacy looks more attractive, while at the same time reducing plastic waste,” said Kartika.
In addition, Kartika invited teachers and students to do a fun walk while cleaning Army Dock Beach as part of efforts to maintain environmental cleanliness. The activity was well received by teachers and students, who were happy to do something different from their usual routine while learning about the importance of keeping the school and its surroundings clean.
“As teachers, we are very enthusiastic about greening our school. We can also see the students’ enthusiasm. They even offered to decorate the living pharmacy by using waste bottles. The big trees we will plant will also be used to increase students’ interest in learning. We are providing benches under the frangipani tree so children can study outside the classroom and not feel bored,” said class one teacher Tan Im.
Through the various activities carried out, Kartika’s efforts together with teachers and students show that caring for the environment can start from simple steps at school. From land that was once barren, their school has now been transformed into a greener space, and plastic waste that previously ended up discarded is now turned into creative and useful works. Through the My School is Green and Waste-Free project module, Kartika and the teachers are working to instil values of responsibility and love for the environment from an early age.
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Program KREASI atau Kolaborasi untuk Edukasi Anak Indonesia didanai oleh Global Partnership for Education, dikembangkan oleh Kementerian Pendidikan Dasar dan Menengah, dan Kementerian Agama. KREASI dijalankan oleh Save the Children bersama Stimulant Institute dengan dukungan Pemerintah Kabupaten Pulau Morotai. KREASI bertujuan untuk meningkatkan kualitas pendidikan di Pulau Morotai dengan memperkuat pengajaran, pembelajaran, dan pengembangan siswa.
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Penulis: Ayutama Putri Jordy | Editor: Andika Ramadhan | Foto: Ayutama Putri Jordy/KREASI/Stimulant Institute/Save the Children