Before a literacy class starts, there’s a step that often gets overlooked: preparing the teacher first. That’s what happened during the Balanced Reading Training at Kimnara Space, the collaboration room in Cepaka Village that, for a day, turned into a classroom for dozens of teachers across Kediri District’s Gugus 1 school cluster in Tabanan.
The activity was organized by Yayasan Literasi Anak Indonesia (YLAI), an organization that has spent more than a decade building reading culture among Indonesian children through teacher training. This time, YLAI picked Kimnara Space as the venue for a pre-event ahead of the main literacy classes set to roll out across Gugus 1 schools.
Why Train Teachers First?
The logic is simple but often missed: no matter how good the reading material prepared for children is, the results fall short if the teacher delivering it doesn’t know how to teach it properly. YLAI has applied this approach across Indonesia for years, from Sumba to several regencies in Bali, with a consistent principle: train the teacher first, and the impact reaches students afterward.
The Balanced Reading Program, YLAI’s flagship approach, isn’t a single reading method. It combines several types of reading activities at once, from interactive reading and shared reading to guided reading and independent reading. Each activity type plays a different role, and teachers need to know when to use which, based on each child’s ability.
Getting to Know the Balanced Reading Program
The word “balanced” in this program refers to the shifting balance between teacher guidance and student independence. At the start, the teacher holds full control through interactive reading. Gradually, that control shifts toward the student through guided reading, until the child can eventually read independently without constant supervision.
A staged approach like this makes sense for elementary-age children, the core age group YLAI has focused on since the foundation was established in 2014. A child who hasn’t developed fluent reading by third grade typically struggles to catch up in later years, which is exactly why early intervention matters so much.
What Is Kediri District’s Gugus 1?
For anyone unfamiliar with the term, a “gugus” in Indonesia’s education system refers to a cluster of schools grouped within one district to make coordinating activities easier, including teacher training. Gugus 1 in Kediri District covers several elementary schools located close to one another, allowing a training session like this to reach many teachers at once in a single venue.
The cluster-based approach is genuinely efficient. Rather than training teachers school by school, gathering them within one cluster saves time while opening space for discussion between teachers from different schools facing similar literacy challenges.
Read also: Melaspas Kimnara Space: A New Coworking Hub Blessed the Balinese Way
Kimnara Space: From Hangout Spot to Teacher Training Room
Photos from the day show teachers seated in batik uniforms, following material projected onto a screen inside Kimnara Space’s collaboration room. The atmosphere felt far from a formal classroom, closer to a relaxed workshop, with a presenter standing at the front explaining concepts while occasionally engaging with participants.
Choosing Kimnara Space as the training venue is worth noting. A space previously known as a café and coworking spot in the middle of Cepaka Village’s rice fields now shows a different side to its function: supporting educational activities for children in Bali, even if indirectly, by training their teachers first.
It also reinforces Kimnara Space’s place within the ecosystem COCO Social Fund has built in Cepaka Village. The same room can serve as a relaxed café one moment and a serious literacy training space the next.
A Collaboration Linking Two Foundations With Different Focuses
Where COCO Social Fund is known for plastic waste processing and community empowerment in Cepaka Village, YLAI brings an entirely different expertise: children’s literacy. Having both focuses meet in one location says something worth noting about how a social foundation in Bali can complement another without sharing an identical mission.
YLAI is no newcomer to Bali either. The Denpasar-based foundation has previously run similar programs across several regencies, including a read-aloud training session held in Tabanan in partnership with the local Library and Archives Office. Their presence at Kimnara Space this time continues a track record already built in this area.
For any company or partner weighing a CSR program in Bali, cross-foundation collaboration like this offers a model worth following. Rather than building a program from scratch, supporting a meeting space between foundations that already have strong track records in their own fields can be a more efficient way to create impact.
From Teacher Training to the Real Literacy Classroom
The training at Kimnara Space is described as a pre-event, meaning this is only the first step before the main literacy classes begin at Gugus 1 schools. Teachers equipped with balanced reading strategies are expected to apply them as soon as they return to their own classrooms, adjusting the method to each student’s ability level.
A pre-event stage like this matters because it gives teachers room to ask questions, try out simulations, and understand the concept before facing students directly. A small misstep in applying the balanced reading method can affect a child’s learning outcomes, so making sure teachers are ready first is a sensible investment.
Closing Thoughts: Literacy That Starts in a Simple Room
The Balanced Reading Training at Kimnara Space proves that major impact often starts with a small step that doesn’t draw much attention. Not a big event with a stage and banners, but dozens of teachers sitting together, absorbing a new strategy, then carrying it back to their own classrooms.
The collaboration between YLAI and Kimnara Space also points to something broader about educational activities for children in Bali: the impact isn’t always visible on training day itself. It shows up months later, once children across Kediri District’s Gugus 1 start reading with more confidence, guided by teachers who are now better prepared to support them.
