TIF Highlights: Jun 2026 to Aug 2026
Updated: Oct 2
Quarterly Update
After a well-deserved June school holiday break, more than 600 students returned to our Learning Centres in July to begin a brand new school year. We kicked off the year with a unit on “Respecting our Differences”, culminating in an end-of-quarter event that brought together students and their parents to celebrate Indonesia’s Independence Day.
We are also proud to announce the launch of two new Learning Centres in Kawal Laut and the small island of Pulau Kecil, bringing us to a total of 15 Learning Centres. In addition, this quarter saw the start of a four-month pilot programme at Sialang School to introduce our unique Learning for Sustainability framework within a formal school setting. Alongside the continued growth of our Teacher Training, Mobile Learning and Community Service Learning programmes, all of us at The Island Foundation are excited for what 2026-2027 holds for the team and the communities we serve.
Learning Centres
Learning Centre Highlights
This quarter, our Learning Centres embarked on a new learning unit titled “Respecting our Differences”, designed to help students understand, appreciate, and respect the diversity of people and cultures. Students were first encouraged to embrace their unique selves, before learning about different languages, stories, places, traditions, beliefs, customs, clothing, cultural symbols, games, and traditional foods. They also explored challenges that can arise from differences, including stereotypes, bullying, discrimination and disagreements between individuals and communities. Our learning facilitators conveyed the importance of treating each other with respect—even when opinions, cultures or beliefs differ.
New Learning Centres
In July, we launched two new Learning Centres in Kawal Laut and the small island of Pulau Kecil.
Kawal Laut is home to the Sama Bajau, an indigenous community whose culture and livelihoods are closely connected to the sea. Our programme in Kawal Laut began with preliminary community engagement to build trust, understand the needs of the locals, and encourage families to support their children’s participation in the programme. The new Learning Centre currently has 30 active students with a strong 93.68% attendance rate—an encouraging start. Most participating children are already enrolled in formal school, while many other children in the community remain out-of-school due to geographical isolation and other barriers to participation.. In the coming months, the team hopes to continue outreach in Kawal Laut, with a particular focus on identifying and reaching out-of-school children.
In Pulau Kecil, a small island fisherman community with limited access to learning opportunities, we have connected with and established an initial class of 16 children. Through this early engagement, we hope to better understand the needs of the local children to inform the development of our programme in this community.
Overall, in Q1, we delivered 580 classes with 870 hours of teaching, engaging 609 students across 15 Learning Centres.
Pilot Learning Centre Collaboration at Sialang School
In July, we embarked on a four-month pilot project in collaboration with Sialang School to introduce our unique student-centred, experiential Learning Centre approach within a formal school setting. The pilot is a timely one, in response to updates to the national primary school curriculum, including the inclusion of English as a compulsory subject. The pilot programme, delivered under the school’s extracurricular program, aims to strengthen students’ basic English proficiency, confidence, communication abilities, and skills across 4Cs: critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration.
We look forward to the success of the pilot as a model for future implementation and collaboration with other schools, to bolster their capacity to provide students with a holistic, well-rounded education.
Teacher Training
Local Teacher Training Updates
This quarter, we continued to strengthen teacher capacity through the Local Teacher Training (LTT) program in Bintan.
From 23-25 June, LTT Bintan Batch 8.2, comprising 38 participating teachers from various schools across the Bintan Regency, completed their professional capacity development training. This training was conducted in collaboration with the Office of Teachers and Education Personnel, demonstrating the support of Indonesia’s Ministry of Education for TIF’s work and a shared commitment to support teacher development in the region.
With this training, we have achieved our initial target to engage 80% of school teachers in Bintan.
Mobile Learning
The Mobile Learning programme continued to grow from strength to strength across our four active locations. Tintin maintained his monthly visits to each remote community, alongside a team of four Orang Laut field learning assistants - one hailing from each active location - supporting programme delivery in their own villages. The assistants have also recently completed a week of training in Bintan, focused on building confidence and consistency in their delivery of the programme.
It is heartening to see the positive and growing support from the communities we serve. Through the course of the team’s engagement, Elders and traditional knowledge holders in each location have come forward with an interest to contribute, opening up opportunities for co-creation to further integrate local knowledge, culture and intergenerational learning within the programme.
Community Engagement
Parents Engagement
This quarter, the team conducted our biannual parent engagement sessions across all 13 Learning Centres. These sessions provide an important platform to strengthen relationships and communications between the Learning Centre teams and parents of our students, sharing updates on students’ activities and progress, discussing plans for the upcoming semester, and providing opportunities for parents to better understand how their children are supported through the program.
Through a series of interactive activities, parents had the opportunity to learn and understand the student experience in our classrooms. These activities allow parents to engage directly with the teaching approach of our facilitators, holding space for questions, the exchange of ideas, and reflections on the role of parents in supporting their children’s learning at home.
A total of 441 out of 512 parents participated in these sessions, representing an 86% participation rate. The high level of participation demonstrates the parents’ continued and active interest in their children’s education, reinforcing the importance of maintaining regular communication and collaboration to create a supportive environment for student learning in both the classroom and at home.
Independence Day Celebration
In conjunction with both Indonesia’s Independence Day and the end of the quarter’s “Respect Our Differences” learning unit, TIF organised a large-scale celebration to reinforce the unit’s concepts of cultural diversity, respect and inclusivity. As the unit’s culminating project, students, led by their facilitators, applied their learning towards organising Bazar Keberagaman (Diversity Bazaar), a cultural festival including performances, cultural activities and traditional games that celebrate Indonesia’s rich cultural diversity and the values of respect, appreciation, and inclusivity.
The event was attended by 550 students and 486 parents across multiple Learning Centres and communities.
We are also grateful for the strong parental involvement in this event, with many parents supporting and taking ownership of different components of event preparations and activities. This event was not only a celebration of our unique differences, but also a reminder of the collective impact made possible by collaboration.
Community Service Learning
In June, TIF conducted a socialization session at UMRAH University to introduce our work and the Community Service Learning (CSL) internship program to students from the Education and Sociology departments. The session provided a platform for our first batch of CSL interns to share their experiences and encourage their peers and juniors to express interest in the program. A total of 36 students attended the session.
As of early August, a second batch of six interns—three from UMRAH’s Faculty of Sociology and three from the Faculty of English—have begun their 3-month attachments with TIF. In their first month, the students underwent induction and knowledge-sharing sessions to equip them with the knowledge and skills to support our Learning Centre operations and projects in the coming weeks.
Looking Ahead
Over the next few months, we will be strengthening our monitoring, evaluation and learning systems ahead of a broader program evaluation, helping us better understand the difference our programs are making and where we can continue to improve.
We will also begin drafting TIF’s next five-year strategy, drawing on the experiences of our communities, staff and partners to shape our priorities for the years ahead. It is an exciting opportunity to build on what we have achieved together and think carefully about how TIF can deepen its impact across the Riau Islands.
Welcoming Pak Jaka and Mathias
We’re delighted to welcome two new members to the TIF team. Pak Jaka Mulyana joins YPKI in Indonesia as Senior Finance Manager, bringing additional financial management and oversight capacity as our programs continue to grow. In Singapore, Mathias Ooi has joined TIF as Development Manager, supporting our fundraising, partnerships and donor engagement. We’re very pleased to have them both on board and look forward to the experience and energy they will bring to the team.
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