Give kids education they deserve<\/p>\n
By Johannes Simbolon<\/p>\n
What can you expect from a teacher who receives only Rp 25,000
\n(US$11.30) per month? The following story reveals the grim
\nsituation of two primary schools in a village, near Bogor, two
\nhours' drive from Jakarta. It shows that Indonesia's program of
\ncompulsory education for elementary school children has yet to
\nbenefit every part of the country.<\/p>\n
BOGOR, West Java (JP): It was just another morning in Nanggung
\nvillage, Jasinga district, Bogor regency. Simply another day for
\nPak Ujang (not his real name), 51, a Bahasa Indonesia teacher at
\nthe Koleang II primary school.<\/p>\n
In front of him were about 60 children. The kids actually
\nbelong to two separate classes, Class 1 and Class 2, but due to a
\nlack of space they sit in one classroom with two blackboards: one
\nfor Class 1, the other for Class 2.<\/p>\n
\"siapa nama orang itu. pak alex namanya. datang dari mana dia.
\ndari Ambon... (what's the name of that man. his name is mr. alex.
\ncomes from where, he. from Ambon),\" Pak Ujang wrote on the board.<\/p>\n
It was full of mistakes. There were no question marks, no
\ncapital letters. He read it out aloud, and Class 1 repeated. The
\nClass 2 students occupying the two rows of desks on the right
\nlooked on as spectators.<\/p>\n
\"Ambon is located in the country of Maluku, which is far away
\nfrom the country of Java,\" he told the children in Sundanese
\nvernacular.<\/p>\n
Again mistakes. He used the term \"country\" instead of \"island\"
\nfor Maluku and Java.<\/p>\n
Ujang graduated from a rural primary school in the 1950s. He
\nhas served as the school's warden for many years, after being
\nasked by the school principal, Oman, to help teach the children
\nbecause of a shortage of teachers.<\/p>\n
A few minutes later he stepped across to Class 2 and read
\naloud from a longer and more serious text. It was Class 1's turn
\nnow to attentively watch their seniors. After a while, Ujang
\nmoved back to the \"classroom\" of the junior pupils before
\nreturning again to the seniors. That's the way he teaches them.<\/p>\n
If Koleang II primary school was in Irian Jaya or Kalimantan,
\nits circumstances would not be surprising. There have been many
\nreports about the lack of educational necessities in such remote
\nareas. As it happens, the school is only a two-hour drive from
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
Nanggung village, which borders the state-owned Jasinga rubber
\nplantation, has a population of about 3,000 people. There are
\nplenty of grim stories there that might open our eyes to the
\nstandard of education received by some, perhaps many, Indonesian
\nchildren in the midst of the current national euphoria over the
\nclaim that the Indonesian compulsory elementary school program is
\na success.<\/p>\n
Shortcomings<\/p>\n
Besides Ujang and the principal Oman, the school's 150 pupils
\nhave only Sahamah, 21, a graduate of a local aliyah (Islamic high
\nschool), who teaches on the basis of a monthly Rp 25,000
\n(US$11.30) honorarium from the children's parents; and Suryani,
\nin her 30s, the only formally trained teacher. Teaching part-time
\nand replacing any of the school's four staff in case of sickness
\nor absence for other reasons, is Teti Susilawati, 24, a charming
\nmidwife assigned by the government to supervise the village's
\npuskesmas (community health center).<\/p>\n
\"I teach classes 5 and 6. They sit in one classroom and I move
\nfrom one blackboard to the other (like Ujang),\" she told The
\nJakarta Post.<\/p>\n
She was recently asked by Bogor Regent Eddy Yoso Martadipura
\nto help with teaching at the school on a purely voluntary basis.
\nEddy made the suggestion after paying a visit to the school and
\nbeing moved by the conditions he observed there. For Teti, the
\npart-time job is not new because, when she was as a student at a
\nhigh school for paramedics, she used to help her mother teach at
\nthe primary school in her home village of Sukajaya in the Cigudeg
\ndistrict, Bogor regency. Her mother was then the school's only
\nteacher.<\/p>\n
The Koleang II primary school used to have enough teachers.
\nHowever, one by one they have returned to their hometowns. Under
\na government regulation teachers, who are government employees,
\nare allowed to move after they have completed a five-year stint
\nin a place assigned to them by the government. Sahamah and
\nSuryani are staying because they have bonds with the village.
\nSahamah is native of Nanggung and Suryani is married to one of
\nthe locals.<\/p>\n
To the teachers, the lack of instructors is not a cause of
\ndespair or apathy. Instead, it has moved them to become more
\ndedicated and to expend more and more energy on their work.<\/p>\n
\"I have an acute stomach illness now as do many fellows,\" said
\nTahmid H. Harun, principal of the Koleang VI primary school in
\nthe neighboring village of Lebak Dangdur. Tahmid, who hails from
\nTernate, Maluku, admitted that he regularly taught three classes
\nsimultaneously, whenever one of his teaching staff was sick.<\/p>\n
Tahmid is one of more than 4,000 high school graduates
\n\"imported\" from Maluku in 1977 by the then governor of West Java,
\nAang Kunaefi, to fill vacancies in many primary schools in the
\nBogor, Sukabumi and Cianjur regencies.<\/p>\n
Lack of teachers is one problem. Another problem is the poor
\nfacilities. Before the regent's visit last month, the four
\nclassrooms of Koleang II had broken floors, revealing soil here
\nand there, and broken bamboo-plaited ceilings through which water
\npoured in whenever it rained. The regent immediately pledged Rp
\n15 million for restoration work.<\/p>\n
Time has taught the villagers a lesson: Trust yourself! A
\ngovernment-paid contractor from town built the school's first
\nclassrooms in the early 1980s. The buildings collapsed within one
\nyear. The villagers built the new ones on their own. Despite the
\nbroken floors and ceilings, they are still standing. Now, with
\nthe money from the regent, the villagers insist they will carry
\nout the repair work themselves.<\/p>\n
The Koleang VI school had very similar experiences.<\/p>\n
\"Look at this,\" a sad Tahmid said, pointing to the floor of
\none classroom, which was covered with gray powder. \"The
\ngovernment-appointed contractor from town fixed the cement floor
\non a Rp 7.5 million budget. In one month, the whole floor has
\nturned to dust, affecting the children's health.\"<\/p>\n
\"It would have been better if they (the government and the
\ncontractor) had kept Rp 2.5 million of the funds for themselves
\nand let us do the work with the rest of the budget,\" he mumbled.<\/p>\n
Drop out<\/p>\n
Despite all the difficulties, the teachers still cherish the
\ndream that their pupils will make progress and succeed in life.
\nTo their disappointment, many of the children quit school or do
\nnot continue with their studies at a higher level. Of the 30-or-
\nso children who join the first grade each year, only about 10
\nremain after six years and fewer still continue to junior high
\nschool.<\/p>\n
Before a junior high school was built two years ago in Koleang
\nvillage, about five kilometers from Nanggung, the number of
\nKoleang II primary school graduates who went on to junior high
\nschool was even smaller. The children used to have to walk 10
\nkilometers to Jasinga, the district's capital, to attend junior
\nhigh school. As there are no buses connecting the village and the
\nsmall town and the townspeople refused to give the children
\nlodging, the only alternative to walking was to go by ojek
\n(motorbike taxi) which cost Rp 3,000 ($1.30) per trip. That was
\nsimply unaffordable for the villagers, who earn between Rp 2,500
\nand Rp 5,000 ($1.10 and 2.20) per day from sapping rubber trees
\nand digging rocks.<\/p>\n
The new junior high school in Koleang village was expected to
\nencourage students to continue their studies after primary
\nschool. However, the number of dropouts remains high. The
\nchildren quit school because of a combination of poverty, on one
\nhand, and the ignorance of their parents about the importance of
\neducation on the other.<\/p>\n
\"There are many cases where the parents withdraw their
\nchildren from school because they cannot afford the so-called
\ncounseling, supervision and development fee of Rp 600 (34 US
\ncents) per month. We then exempt them from the fees. But they are
\nashamed of sending their children back to school,\" said Tahmid.<\/p>\n
Primary school tuition fees were abolished in 1984 with the
\nintroduction of the compulsory primary school program. The pupils
\ndo not have to pay the BP3 (counseling, supervision and
\ndevelopment) fees which are meant to cover, among other things,
\nteachers' honoraria and the purchase of school equipment, such as
\nchalk.<\/p>\n
Given the degree of poverty, any donation, however negligible,
\nis a boon to them.<\/p>\n
\"Recently we received 3,000 exercise books from the Yamaha
\nmotorbike company. All the parents were happy. Each kid received
\n15 books,\" said Omon, pointing to the children, each of which was
\ncarrying the slim \"Yamaha\" books.<\/p>\n
Some of the children who drop out of school end up helping
\ntheir parents with their work, but most of them are working in
\ntextiles or printing home industries in urban centers as big as
\nJakarta, earning a salary of about Rp 7,500 ($3.40) per week<\/p>\n
\"Every month, there are Chinese coming here from Jakarta to
\nrecruit the kids. We can't stop them because the parents gladly
\naccept them and they always come in the company of the villagers
\nwho serve as manpower brokers,\" said Amir Husen, chief of
\nNanggung village.<\/p>\n
Given all that, it is not surprising that after 50 years of
\nIndonesian independence, only one of the natives of Nanggung
\nvillage and the surrounding area has graduated from university.<\/p>",
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