This can be a routine afternoon at Public Vocational Excessive Faculty (SMKN) 1 Plosoklaten in Kediri, East Java, the place studying doesn’t cease on the classroom door however continues in barns, fields, and fish ponds.
Right here, college students work in groups based mostly on their majors, answerable for livestock or crops that mirror real-world agricultural enterprises, mixing formal training with every day accountability and hands-on problem-solving.
For Aditya Mahendra, an Eleventh-grade scholar, selecting animal husbandry was not unintended. It mirrored a childhood fondness for animals and a want to be taught abilities that would instantly enhance his household’s livelihood.
At college, Aditya does excess of learn textbooks. He cleans pens, prepares feed, screens animal well being, and observes development patterns—abilities that no written examination alone might ever totally educate.
Every day, he helps look after dozens of sheep of various breeds, guaranteeing they’re fed correctly and housed in clear circumstances to supply wholesome, market-ready livestock.
The college removes logistical boundaries that usually restrict vocational coaching. A devoted grass-growing space throughout the campus provides animal feed, eliminating the necessity for store-bought fodder.
That setup permits college students like Aditya to deal with nurturing animals somewhat than sourcing supplies, reinforcing self-discipline, consistency, and accountability.
For Aditya, sheep breeding is not only a faculty task. It instantly improves how he manages the eight goats stored by his household at house.
“I’m blissful right here as a result of I be taught animal farming correctly,” he mentioned. “I can apply what I be taught at college instantly at house.”
Past sheep, college students obtain instruction in cattle farming, together with feed formulation and milking strategies, making ready them for various livestock operations.
Animal well being can also be emphasised, with hands-on classes overlaying illness prevention, early detection, and primary therapy—abilities important in rural farming communities.
On the agricultural aspect, first-year scholar Adinda is a part of a special studying ecosystem, one rooted in soil somewhat than stables.
Every agriculture class is split into groups of 10 college students, every assigned accountability for particular crops grown on school-managed land.
Adinda’s group cultivates leeks, managing your complete cycle from planting and fertilizing to irrigation and harvesting.
Their backyard plots sit on elevated land to forestall waterlogging, supported by sheds and infrastructure designed to imitate actual farming circumstances.
At only one month previous, the leek crops already present promising development, the results of cautious planning and every day upkeep by the scholars.
“All of the seeds and fertilizers are supplied,” Adinda mentioned. “Our job is to develop the crops correctly till they’re able to promote.”
Incentives matter. The college has promised college students a share of the earnings from crop gross sales, reinforcing entrepreneurship alongside technical abilities.
That strategy displays the imaginative and prescient of principal Hadi Sugiharto, who has led the college since 2024 with a transparent emphasis on sensible training.
Sugiharto believes vocational colleges should transcend idea, producing graduates able to work, innovate, and adapt in actual financial circumstances.
Below his management, SMKN 1 Plosoklaten has expanded hands-on applications throughout majors, aligning training with native financial wants.
Agriculture college students domesticate crops equivalent to leeks and eggplants, whereas animal husbandry college students handle sheep, cattle, omega-egg chickens, and aquaculture methods.
The college’s 10 hectares of land function a dwelling laboratory, integrating classroom classes with every day manufacturing actions.
Roughly 1,600 college students are educated to know meals methods from the bottom up, utilizing regionally sourced supplies to strengthen meals safety.
Sugiharto mentioned the college additionally facilitates 18-week internships, permitting college students to deepen abilities by trade publicity.
Partnerships with native authorities establishments additional strengthen the college’s function as a regional vocational training hub.
He credited the East Java provincial authorities for launching the Sekolah Inovasi Ketahanan Pangan, or SIKAP, program, which helps nationwide meals self-sufficiency efforts beginning on the college stage.
Meals safety laboratory
Below Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa, East Java has positioned colleges as laboratories for meals safety by SIKAP.
This system goals to domesticate younger expertise able to supporting Indonesia’s long-term objective of meals independence, as soon as achieved in the course of the period of former president Soeharto.
To advertise SIKAP, the governor not too long ago led large-scale planting, fish-stocking, and harvesting actions involving 1000’s of lecturers and college students throughout East Java.
Members included college students from normal and special-needs excessive colleges, underscoring this system’s inclusive strategy.
SIKAP redefines colleges as greater than facilities of educational instruction, remodeling them into strategic areas for meals safety consciousness.
College students achieve hands-on expertise in planting, harvesting, processing crops, and managing livestock, grounding summary coverage targets in on a regular basis observe.
This system aligns intently with the central authorities’s meals self-sufficiency agenda, a core pillar of President Prabowo Subianto’s Asta Cita missions.
Alongside Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Prabowo has positioned meals independence on the coronary heart of nationwide growth technique.
The outcomes are already seen. In December 2025, only one 12 months into Prabowo’s administration, Indonesia declared rice self-sufficiency.
That milestone was important for a nation of roughly 280 million folks, the place rice stays the every day staple for many households.
East Java’s SIKAP program is more and more considered as a mannequin that could possibly be replicated nationwide.
By embedding meals safety classes in colleges, the province is mobilizing college students not simply as learners, however as future producers, innovators, and stewards of Indonesia’s meals system.
Because the solar units over SMKN 1 Plosoklaten, college students end their chores and head house, carrying with them greater than homework.
They go away with sensible abilities, a way of possession, and a quiet understanding that nationwide meals safety begins with small, disciplined actions—usually after the college bell rings.
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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