Funding still hampers compulsory education<\/p>\n
By Yoko N. Sari<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): With the enforcement of the nine-year compulsory
\neducation program today, the following incident calls to mind the
\nproblems already faced in enforcing compulsory grade-school
\neducation and the implications for the expanded policy.<\/p>\n
Some time back a nine-year old girl wept, begged and nagged at
\nher father to send her to elementary school with her friends.<\/p>\n
Her low-income father had no money to pay the enrollment fee.
\nFinally he borrowed some money from his employer, but by then she
\nwas already two years behind her friends.<\/p>\n
Her father will face a similar problem when she wants to
\nenroll in junior high school as the government now requires. It
\nis most likely that he will not be able to pay the even higher
\nenrollment fee required for secondary school.<\/p>\n
The story reflects the general situation of the country's
\neducation sector. Despite the six-year compulsory education
\npolicy introduced on May 2, 1984, many children remain out of
\nschool. Many parents cannot afford to send their children to
\nschool or are forced to delay their children's desire for an
\neducation because of their difficult financial situation.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, the word \"compulsory\" has little significance in
\nterms of the fact that education costs a great deal and people
\ncannot be forced to do the impossible.<\/p>\n
Z.A. Achmady, the Director General of Basic and Middle
\nEducation, told The Jakarta Post that the government's \"tuition
\nfree\" policy does not really mean that compulsory education will
\nbe free because parents are always required to make
\n\"contributions\" to the school's coffers.<\/p>\n
If parents did not pay the various fees the schools could not
\noperate. One parent even complained that since the compulsory
\nprogram education was first introduced, he has had to pay more
\nthan previously.<\/p>\n
\"The contributions are decided upon by the Parents-Teachers
\nAssociation, and it is aimed to help the school,\" Achmady said.<\/p>\n
Many parents also complained about the \"monthly donations\" the
\nschools demand as well.<\/p>\n
\"There are various fees, and they all sound obscure. For
\nexample, we have to pay the \"seat\" fee, the \"fence fee\" and other
\ndonations. The amount comes to more than the monthly tuition fee
\nrequired before the system was introduced,\" one parent commented.<\/p>\n
A teacher of the SD 003 state elementary school in Pejaten,
\nPasar Minggu, South Jakarta, told the Post that the school needs
\nthe donations because although it receives financial aid from the
\nMinistry of Education and Culture, the amount is not adequate to
\ncover its daily activities.<\/p>\n
\"But we always discuss the amount of the donations, no matter
\nhow small they are, with the parents,\" she said.<\/p>\n
She added that the parents of students who clearly cannot
\nafford the donations are exempted from the obligation.<\/p>\n
Aside from the various monthly fees, parents also have to pay
\nan enrollment fee, which varies from Rp 50,000 to Rp 70,000, or
\nmore. For poor parents, the amount is out of reach.<\/p>\n
The financial constraints, combined with parents' low level of
\nawareness of the importance of basic education have caused around
\ntwo million elementary-school-age children to miss the chance at
\nan education.<\/p>\n
Beginning<\/p>\n
Yesterday marked the beginning of the nine-year compulsory
\neducation program for children aged between seven to 15 years
\nold. Under the new compulsory system, students who finish
\nelementary school must continue their education to junior high
\nschool.<\/p>\n
The program is aimed to educate as many people as possible to
\nincrease the quality of the nation's human resources in order to
\nenable Indonesia to better compete with other nations in the
\nfuture.<\/p>\n
This program is the continuation of the six-year compulsory
\neducation policy, which has reached 94 percent adherence, with
\n29.5 million children aged between seven and 12 years old having
\nstarted grade school. However the number of dropouts is high, at
\n1.2 million children per year. The number of children who finish
\ngrade school, but who do not continue their educations is equally
\nhigh, at another 1.2 million per year.<\/p>\n
In general, grade-school children seem happy with the idea of
\ngoing to junior high school.<\/p>\n
\"We know about the compulsory education from a song,\" said a
\nbunch of children in South Sukabumi, West Java, when asked
\nwhether they knew about the new program.<\/p>\n
They all quickly nodded when asked whether they would like to
\ncontinue their studies into junior high school.<\/p>\n
It is feared, however, that this strong desire for a higher
\neducation will end in disappointment for many of them, when they
\nfind out their parents cannot afford to pay for their further
\neducation.<\/p>\n
Most of the dropouts will be forced to enter the work force
\nfaster than other children who are lucky enough to be able to
\ncontinue their studies.<\/p>\n
Obstacles<\/p>\n
From the very beginning of the plan, Minister of Education and
\nCulture Wardiman Djojonegoro has stressed that several obstacles
\nare facing the nine-year compulsory education program.<\/p>\n
Among these are the chronic lack of classrooms, books, the
\npoor quality of teachers and the parents' low level of awareness
\nof the importance of education.<\/p>\n
Basyuni Suriaamihardja, chairman of the Indonesian Teachers
\nAssociation, noted that some parents, particularly those with low
\nincomes, do not believe in providing education beyond grade
\nschool for their children.<\/p>\n
\"It's because they notice that the unemployment rate among the
\neducated is still high,\" Basyuni said as quoted by Antara news
\nagency recently.<\/p>\n
Besides, there are still a high number of children who are
\nforced to work to add to their family's income, he explained.<\/p>\n
\"We need to make people realize that sending their children to
\nschool should not necessarily be linked with providing a
\nguarantee for their future employment. A formal education is more
\nan effort to allow children to find themselves, to express
\nthemselves,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The quality of the nation's teachers is one of the most
\nimportant factors in ensuring a low-cost education, and thus
\nencouraging low-income parents to send their children to school.<\/p>\n
When the quality of the teachers is high, elementary school
\nstudents can achieve high scores on the nationwide state final
\nexaminations. With high scores, children can enter state-owned
\njunior high schools, which are cheaper, though not necessarily of
\nlower quality, than private schools.<\/p>\n
Minister Wardiman pointed out that even when teachers are
\nhighly skilled, their ability to adequately convey knowledge to
\ntheir students is poor because there are too many students in one
\nclass.<\/p>\n
\"The implementation of the teaching method is not effective,
\nand it causes our students to look stupid,\" Wardiman said.<\/p>\n
Because of their poor scores, many students have to study at
\nprivate schools, which are more expensive. This has led to high-
\ncost education nationwide.<\/p>\n
Students at a private elementary school in South Sukabumi,
\nWest Java, for example, have to pay Rp 15,000 (US$7) every year.
\nTheir parents consider the amount too high because most of them
\nare peasants or plantation workers.<\/p>\n
In Bogor, also in West Java, students at a private junior high
\nschool have to pay Rp 70,000 ($32.71) in donations and another Rp
\n7,000 ($3.3) in tuition fees per month.<\/p>\n
The ministry has responded to this situation by providing
\nfinancial assistance to private junior high schools. Although the
\namount of the subsidy is not high enough to cover the majority of
\nexpenses, at least it helps schools cut their tuition fees. It is
\nexpected that more children will be able to study at private
\njunior high schools with this kind of assistance.<\/p>\n
The minister explained that besides the overcrowded classes,
\nthe inadequate incomes and substandard welfare of the teachers is
\nanother factor behind their poor performance.<\/p>\n
He said it's difficult to improve the teachers' welfare
\nbecause decisions on salary and benefits are made by other
\ngovernment agencies, including the Ministry of Finance and the
\nNational Development Planning Agency (Bappenas). Meanwhile, the
\ngovernment's ability to hire teachers as civil servants is also
\nlimited.<\/p>\n
\"There are a lot of teachers. The problem is the government
\ndoes not have enough money to employ them all as civil servants,\"
\nWardiman said.<\/p>\n
In the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (Repelita VI), for
\nexample, the government is planning to recruit a total of 150,000
\nnew teachers for elementary and junior high schools.<\/p>\n
Facilities<\/p>\n
To solve the problem of overcrowded classrooms, the government
\nalso plans to build 3,000 new schools, mostly junior high
\nschools, and 29,000 classrooms to accommodate 6.8 million
\nstudents out of the 12.8 million children estimated to be in the
\n13 to 15 year old age bracket.<\/p>\n
However, it is already clear that all those facilities will
\nfall short of accommodating all the children needing education.
\nAnd with the limited budget provided by the government, it is
\nexpected to take 15 years before the nine-year compulsory program
\ncan be called a success.<\/p>\n
And yet, Minister Wardiman maintains optimism, often pointing
\nout that the program can be expected to be fully implemented in
\n10 years with the help of public participation.<\/p>\n
\"I hope people will participate by building more schools or
\nclassrooms themselves,\" Wardiman said.<\/p>\n
Public participation can be realized in many ways, such as
\nthrough the parent-teacher organizations. Real estate firms can
\nalso build schools in their housing complexes.<\/p>\n
The Parent-Teachers Association of the SMPN 3 junior high
\nschool in Semarang, Central Java, has started by contributing Rp
\n100 million ($46,729) for the construction of new classrooms.<\/p>\n
Quite a lot of parents are eager to help their children's
\nschools.<\/p>\n
\"I don't mind the high tuition fees because I believe that
\neducation will help my children in the future,\" Iswandirini, a
\nsecretary at a pharmaceutical company said. She has two sons to
\neducate.<\/p>\n
However, she also suggested that the government play a bigger
\nrole in preparing the necessary facilities to make the program a
\nsuccess.<\/p>\n
\"The system is good. The question now is whether the
\ngovernment is ready to build more facilities to back up the
\nprogram,\" she said.<\/p>",
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