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Welcoming Sekolah John Wilson, New SLH School in Interior Papua
12-October-2023
On September 20, 2023, the Pelita Harapan Educational Foundation (YPPH) inaugurated Sekolah John Wilson in the district of Holuwon, which is part of the Yakuhimo regency in the highlands of the Papua province. The school will be managed under the Sekolah Lentera Harapan (SLH) network of schools. With this new school addition, YPPH now runs a total of 10 SLH schools in the remote interior region.
Sekolah John Wilson is named after John Wilson, a pioneering Christian missionary who arrived in the Holuwon area in 1971 and spent the next 20 years preaching the Gospel and teaching literacy to the Yali tribal group. Due to the challenging terrain and constrained access, the school was previously plagued by high teacher turnover and absenteeism which in turn negatively impacted student motivation and educational quality.
YPPH, which envisions to provide quality and holistic Christian education to children from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds, collaborated with the local government and the Yapelin foundation of the Evangelical Church of Indonesia (GIDI) to transform the existing school. Under the 30-year partnership scheme, the local government and Yapelin will provide the land and school building, while YPPH will be in charge of supplying quality teachers and operating the school.
For the new school year starting August 2023, the K-Grade 3 school will enrol 59 students. The students will be taught by four permanent teachers who are graduates of Universitas Pelita Harapan’s Teachers College. YPPH’s contribution is highly appreciated by the local community and the church who have long yearned for transformational education in the region.
Through Sekolah John Wilson, YPPH seeks to produce academically sound and virtuous, God-fearing students who will become future agents of change for the development of interior Papua and beyond.