Every morning, a big riverside school in the forest of Borneo comes to life. The caretakers and teachers in the school are from a specialized team, and the students there are orangutans whose parents have gone missing, making it one of the most unusual schools in the world.

The orangutans aged from 2 to 8 years old are divided into five groups according to their skills. They are looked after by the team who feed the babies and teach the older ones to start feeding themselves. There are often problems in the beginning. For example, there was a lesson about how to break open a coconut to drink the milk inside. Several young orangutans couldn’t do that and they got very angry about the whole thing!

Of course, as in any social group, the orangutans have to learn to get on with each other. There are the usual arguments over food when one orangutan doesn’t get what he or she wants. However, with the care of the trainers, they gradually learn to accept each other.

In one of the lessons, the trainers teach young orangutans to climb trees. This is an important skill they need to learn. Some of the orangutans in particular were really scared. It took them a long time to get the courage to climb up and swing from a branch, but when they finally did it, they were so satisfied with themselves!

The goal of the “education system” is to train the orangutans to be able to live in the wild again and look after themselves. They won’t have to stay at school forever! After the older orangutans are set free into the forest, there is no more connection with the people from the school. They now have to live as wild orangutans again and be accepted by the other orangutans who are already there.

The day when they say goodbye is a difficult one. However, the trainers are happy that their job is done. They have successfully taught young orangutans how to live in the wild again—where they belong.