1,800 students too poor to study

BANDUNG: At least 1,800 elementary school graduates in Bandung, West Java, cannot afford to continue their studies at secondary schools, officials say.

Bandung municipal education office head Edi Siswadi said on average, "around five percent of elementary school graduates in Bandung are forced to leave school, mostly because of economic problems."

The students' failure to continue their studies left about 6,000 seats in local state and private secondary schools vacant, Siswadi said.

He said private schools suffered most, while the cheaper state junior high schools still registered big numbers of new students.

More than 36,000 graduates had enrolled in private and state secondary schools this year, Siswadi said. --JP