Building Learning Spaces for Children at the Gerbang Barito REDD+ Project

On a weekend morning in Batilap or Batampang Village, children often arrive before a session is scheduled to begin. Some arrive with books already open. Others come empty-handed, curious about what the session will be like. Wildlife Works Reading Club, known locally as Carbon School (Sekolah Karbon), does not follow a bell or a timetable. It grows through regular participation. 

 This kind of learning does not begin with a plan on paper; it evolves from people showing up and staying engaged.  Consent, dialogue, and shared decision making  continue to shape how learning spaces are formed. They also influence how materials take shape and how relationships evolve over time. Carbon School is not designed as a one-way delivery model. It takes shape through shared effort, guided by the people who use the space and keep it going. 

From Reading Club to Shared Learning Space

 Carbon School began as a reading initiative managed by the Village Forest Management (LPDH) in Batilap and Batampang. It was formally launched in May 2024, building on earlier community-led reading activities that had been running at village level for several years. The initial aim was simple: to strengthen children’s understanding of the environment by creating a place where they could read and learn together through books. Over time, the sessions began to grow in new ways. Stories raised questions, which often led to discussion and connections with rivers, forests, and daily routines. 

 Over time, the reading club developed into what the community now calls Carbon School. From the beginning, literacy and environmental awareness went hand in hand, and what children read and discussed was closely linked to what they saw around them each day. National context shows why this matters. According to the OECD’s PISA 2022 country note for Indonesia, the region’s average reading literacy score was  below the international average. This gap highlights the value of accessible learning spaces such as Carbon School, where books connect directly with everyday experience. Sessions stayed informal and adaptive, adjusting to village rhythms rather than fixed schedules. By 2025, Carbon School was running regularly in Batilap and Batampang villages and in Simpang Telo Hamlet, reflecting growing local interest and ownership. 

Learning by Doing, Side by Side

There is no formal curriculum in Carbon School. Sessions unfold through learning by doing. Children read aloud, draw, tell stories, solve puzzles, and talk. Environmental themes are introduced through familiar examples such as household waste, energy use, seasonal change, and nearby forest areas. 

Facilitation is led by local community members, and in 2025 Carbon School worked with a small group of local women tutors drawn from the villages, each bringing different educational backgrounds and levels of experience. Most do not come from formal teaching backgrounds and position themselves as facilitators rather than instructors. As a result, early sessions were exploratory and sometimes uneven, with activities emerging spontaneously and discussion coming and going. 

Between August and November 2025, tutors took part in a jointly designed capacity-strengthening process. The training was shaped through observation and discussion with tutors, responding directly to challenges they faced in mixed-age learning spaces. The aim was not to standardize methods. It was to build confidence. Gradually, sessions naturally developed a clearer flow. Tutors gained practical tools while keeping flexibility intact. This balance matters, as it allows for capacity to grow without displacing local ownership. 

Observed Changes Over Time

Across 2025, gradual changes became more noticeable. Participation during the year was estimated at around 50 children in Batampang, 30 children in Batilap, and 15 children in Simpang Telo Hamlet, with attendance remaining open and rotating rather than fixed. Children arrived earlier and stayed longer. Those who once stayed quiet started to speak. Discussions moved beyond repeating information and toward connecting ideas with daily life. Drawings, short reflections, and simple stories became common outputs. 

These changes were not captured through tests or scores. They were observed alongside the gradual growth of learning resources. Each village initially received 108 books, with collections expanding over time through community and external contributions. In Batampang, the collection grew to nearly 200 books by the end of 2025. These changes were observed through interaction, engagement, and everyday learning dynamics. Progress was understood as a pattern rather than a number. This approach reflects the informal nature of Carbon School and how learning develops in community settings. 

Adapting to Village Reality

Implementation was shaped by real conditions. Variations in tutor experience, fluctuating attendance, and limited space required constant adjustment. Attendance shifted with school schedules, household responsibilities, and seasonal flooding. Mixed age groups shared limited space.  

Rather than treating these as obstacles, they became inputs for learning. Tutor training addressed uneven facilitation experience. Documentation practices were simplified, moving toward short session notes and small sets of photos that tutors could realistically share from the field. Documentation expectations were adjusted to better match field realities. This adaptive approach allowed Carbon School to continue and develop over time. 

Learning Over Time

Carbon School forms part of the broader community engagement strategy of the Gerbang Barito REDD+ Project. By introducing environmental themes early, the program invests in future stewards of village forests. It strengthens learning spaces that belong to the community and grow with it. 

This way of working is a practice. Carbon School illustrates how shared learning, developed gradually and shaped locally, can support long-term engagement and forest stewardship.