Economic woes force 12,000 W. Java students to drop out

JAKARTA (JP): Twelve thousand West Java elementary school students can no longer afford education, according to the head of the West Java education and culture office.

"This must be quickly overcome or the figure will increase," said Hasymi Romly on Monday in a discussion on elementary education in Garut, West Java. Antara reported a large proportion of the students' parents had lost their jobs.

On Wednesday Minister of Education and Culture Juwono Sudarsono said high public awareness of education had helped to forestall the initially estimated 6.5 million drop-outs at all levels, including higher education.

So far 2.5 million had dropped out, Juwono said, but did not give a breakdown for each level. Among the measures it was taking, Juwono said the government was working to exempt students from poor families from paying school fees.

Hasymi said among his office's efforts to keep students in school, nonformal education known as Paket A at elementary level and Paket B at junior high level was being organized for drop- outs, Hasymi said. The report did not cite the number of actual drop-outs from either levels.

Hasymi said distance learning would also be developed.

A program involving the public called Love Your Alumni Elementary School Movement in which people contribute to their former elementary schools, has raised Rp 270 million (US$24,500).

The funds will be prioritized to children of dismissed workers, Hasymi said. He added that a constraint on the government program to provide the nine-year basic education was the lack of facilities, particularly in Moslem junior high schools, the madrasah tsanawiyah.

A six-year joint project with the World Bank, the West Java Basic Education Project, he said, was among the schemes funding the renovation of school buildings.

In the first year the project involved 12 regencies: Lebak, Pandeglang, Sukabumi, Cianjur, Majalengka, Kuningan, Indramayu, Subang, Karawang, Bandung, Garut and Tasikmalaya.

The project cost US$130.2 million, of which 80 percent was a World Bank loan and the rest came from the government.

Among West Java's 48,731 elementary school buildings, 4,423 were badly damaged, Hasymi said.

Thousands of needy students have received more than Rp 13.4 billion in education funds from the National Foster Parent Movement. The students included 29,469 in West Java.

A release from the Movement, GNOTA, said Sunday that since Aug. 8 public contributions totaling Rp 13,437,420,000 which it had received had been distributed to 180,714 students in 26 provinces.

An executive of GNOTA, Jeannette Sudjunadi, that of the contributions, 78,873 "packages" had been received in regencies.

Packages refer to funds of Rp 60,000 for elementary school students and Rp 90,000 for junior high school students channeled through school principals in Java through the state-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia. Outside Java, the packages refer to contributions of uniforms, shoes and writing equipment.

The report did not specify the number of elementary and junior high students who received assistance. The contributions included 101,841 parcels scheduled for delivery from Sunday to next month.

"GNOTA is also preparing contributions for around 700,000 more foster students," Sudjunadi said. (anr)