A Nautical School without Compasses or Maps

Hensje Lakahena pointed at a used plastic ball with the world map painted on its surface. A ship was painted sailing on the blue seas. On the ball’s surface, there were four thin wires with tiny rolls of sago tree bark attached to their ends like satellites up high in the sky.

Beside the ball there was a frame filled with snail shells arranged to form the points of a compass. The two simple props have helped Hensje’s students at SMKN 1 public vocational high school at Nusalaut, Central Maluku regency, Maluku, gain knowledge about the Earth, satellites and basic navigation science. This is in line with the required basic competence of nautical skills for work on fishing vessels.

The globe model and the points-of-the-compass frame were created to overcome the lack of props at the school that was established in 2013. Every day, the globe and the frame were stored on top of the cupboard in the principal’s office as there was no laboratory. The school only has the two makeshift props. The school has no compass, ocean charts, math compass, radio, radar, or training boat.