foto: brilio.net/himma
Brilio.net - The powerful Yogyakarta earthquake in 2006 had a serious impact on the local community. The earthquake, which occurred on a scale of 5.9 on the Richter scale, even though it only lasted for 59 seconds, claimed up to 6,000 lives and destroyed buildings and homes of Jogja residents, especially in the Bantul area which was very close to the epicenter of the earthquake.
Apart from Bantul, other areas near the Special Region of Yogyakarta (DIY) were also affected. For example, Bayat District, Klaten, which is directly adjacent to Gunung Kidul, DIY. As a result of the damage from this earthquake, the economy of the people of Bayat District declined and experienced many losses in various sectors.
The damage was fatal enough to make help come from various parties. One of them was from Qatar who was concerned about disasters in Indonesia at that time, especially in the education sector. The Qatari government, through the ROTA (Reach Out To Asia) foundation, established assistance in the form of a vocational school in the Bayat area with the name SMKN 1 ROTA Bayat. Located on Jl. Cawas - Bayat No. Km. 1, Kebu, Beluk, Kec. Bayat, Klaten Regency, Central Java, SMKN 1 ROTA is currently a B-accredited vocational high school.
photo: brilio.net/himma
In collaboration with the TITIAN Foundation, at that time the main aim of establishing this vocational school by the ROTA foundation was to help victims affected by the earthquake so they could continue their education, especially those related to skills. Considering that Bayat District has good cultural potential, namely batik and ceramic craft arts, SMKN 1 ROTA Bayat was established in 2009.
photo: brilio.net/himma
Previously, this school only had 128 students with two majors, namely batik and textile creative crafts and ceramic creative crafts. Due to economic conditions that are still recovering since the 2006 earthquake, when this school was founded, tuition fees were free and students were given pocket money of IDR 5,000 every day.
"In the past, tuition fees were free and schools even provided pocket money. We hope this can help and ease the burden on parents regarding their children's education after the earthquake. This was the role of the foundation at that time, helping cover tuition fees and pocket money," said Sriyanta as head. SMKN 1 ROTA Bayat school to brilio.net recently.
Finally, SMKN 1 ROTA is growing rapidly. From year to year, this vocational school also produces graduates who have reliable potential in the field of ceramics and batik. Graduates even contribute to the Bayat community to preserve the surrounding culture. Examples include opening new batik and ceramic industrial centers. That way, students and graduates can play an active role in the batik and ceramic industrial center in Bayat. They can also continue their business potential by making this craft uninterrupted and sustainable.
With the capital of utilizing the rich culture of the Bayat community, SMKN 1 ROTA Bayat is now the only vocational school that has majors in the creative arts of batik, textiles and the creative arts of ceramics.
photo: brilio.net/himma
Intern/Himmatul Ahsana
The progress of the creative crafts department at SMKN 1 ROTA.
The creative batik craft department, which is SMKN 1 ROTA's favorite major, has produced works that are marketed on various occasions. The students' batik work was exhibited at several events and sold online under the product name Kriyasta. By utilizing social media TikTok @rootexstudio along with the TikTok shop, batik products created by SMKN 1 ROTA students can become a place to do business and increase students' entrepreneurial spirit with batik skills as a main competency.
photo: brilio.net/himma
Various works from students are also displayed in the school gallery so that anyone can buy the work. With batik and textile skills, the batik and textile creative arts major is more popular with women. They actively participate in various exhibitions and display the students' crafts in the public eye.
"By coincidence, at that time I was appointed to represent ROTA Vocational School with my teacher. This exhibition commemorated Teacher's Day and was attended by more than 10 schools in Central Java with various departments. There were wood crafts from Jepara, batik from Pekalongan, agriculture, beauty, culinary arts. and many more. ROTA Vocational School offers batik cloth, batik scarves and ceramic cups," said Selfa Ramadani, a class XII batik craft student to brilio.net .
Not only that, Selfa also talked about her valuable experiences while studying at SMKN 1 ROTA Bayat.
"The experience of 3 years in the textile department is very impressive. At first I thought textiles only revolved around making batik, drawing and making designs. But it turns out that textiles is so broad in scope, there are many new things I learned in this department such as batik. What I know about the batik process is only up to in the cutting process. But it turns out we were guided to make batik cloth until the cloth was suitable for sale," he explained.
Selfa further talked about her process of learning how to make clothes. Starting from the process of making patterns, cutting fabric, to the sewing process which turns out to be not easy. He also learned to screen print clothes, a process that is not as easy as turning the palm of your hand. However, this female student still enjoyed the process of gaining knowledge and skills at SMKN 1 ROTA Bayat.
"Being part of SMK ROTA, especially in the textile department, is one of my pride. Because having a textile department that studies batik is a small step towards preserving one of the world's heritages, namely batik. And SMK ROTA is the only school in Klaten that provides majoring in textiles," he concluded.
photo: brilio.net/himma
However, this is different from the ceramic creative arts department, which is dominated by male students. The skill of forming clay as a basic material to make beautiful ceramics is more often done by men. The results are also varied, ranging from pots, jars, to ceramics made for cutlery.
As one of the distinctive and unique departments at SMKN 1 ROTA, ceramic creative arts students also have many beautiful works. The results are often displayed at several exhibitions and even put into school galleries for display and for sale.
"This major is often looked down upon by other people. But that's where I intend to prove that my major is not that trivial. From the major, we learn that everything requires a process and continuous learning. At Vocational School, I can learn and know many things such as "how to make ceramics from start to finish, starting from clay until it becomes a beautiful and beautiful object, we can make it and then sell it. After graduating we can start our own business," said Shifa, a student majoring in creative ceramics.
The development of SMKN 1 ROTA produces a skilled generation.It's not just the two majors as mentioned at the beginning that are the attraction of SMKN 1 ROTA Bayat. This vocational high school also has two new majors since 2015. These majors are motorbike engineering and visual communication design. These two majors are quite common in other vocational high schools. But of course, the existence of these 2 new majors shows that SMKN 1 ROTA is able to create majors that are useful for other people.
"Alhamdulillah, I am very proud of my child's progress regarding the practices he learned at school that can be applied again at home. My child often asks his friends to help him repair a broken motorbike," said Daryatun, the parent of Nabil, a student in the motorbike engineering class.
The rapid development of SMKN 1 ROTA can also be seen from the growing number of students at this school. If in 2009 there were only 128 students for two majors, to date there are 1,160 students studying at SMKN 1 ROTA for four majors, namely batik and textile creative arts, ceramic creative crafts, motorbike engineering, and visual communication design.
The presence of SMKN 1 ROTA seemed to be a source of solace and encouragement for the local community after the earthquake disaster 18 years ago. Not only as a place to gain knowledge for the younger generation, but also as a means for the community to preserve the rich culture of batik and ceramics which have become regional icons.
(brl/tin)
