Education takes a backseat in Samarinda

Rusman, The Jakarta Post, Samarinda

Thirteen-year-old Abdul Hamid held his hand out toward the cars stopped at the intersection near the Mahakam River in Samarinda, East Kalimantan.

His clothes were dirty and so was his face as he stood below the merciless sun. Several motorists opened their windows a crack and passed through a few small coins to the boy, who put the money in the front pocket of his dirty jeans.

"I use the money to buy food. How will I get money to buy food if I don't beg. My father left us and my mother works doing other people's laundry," he said, running to the other side of the road as the traffic light turned red.

Whenever he gets tired, he leans against a pole and counts the money he has made. Nearby, other children do the same.

Abdul works long hours. He sells newspapers neighborhood to neighborhood every morning until 9 a.m. After that, he goes home, changes into dirty clothes and leaves for the streets to beg until 1:30 p.m., or sometimes until 3 p.m., before returning home to eat and have a nap. There is no time for school in his day.

Fifteen-year-old Herman starts his day carrying bags for shoppers at Samarinda market, before he too hits the streets to beg. He gives the money he earns to his parents, to help pay the school fees for a younger sibling in elementary school.

"Finishing elementary school was good enough for me. My parents could not afford to keep me in school," he said.

That children in East Kalimantan, a province rich in natural resources, are forced to drop out of school because they cannot afford to continue their educations is difficult to understand.

Of the province's 2.63 million residents, about 46 percent, or 1.21 million, are junior high school and high school graduates. About 1.2 million only completed elementary school. The remaining 2.72 percent, or 54,400 people, did not complete elementary school.

In 2004, the provincial budget was Rp 3 trillion (US$330 million) and the number of children aged 10 years and above who dropped out of school reached 79,000 from 1.89 million school-age children.

The dropout rate this year is expected to increase because of higher fuel prices and a smaller provincial budget of Rp 2.6 trillion.

Observers fear the recent fuel price increases will drive more residents into poverty. There are currently 290,630 people in the province officially classified as poor.

The head of the local education council, Awang Faroek, said that as the economy got tougher there would be more school dropouts.

"The government does not side with the people or the education system. A large part of the money appropriated for human resources development (HRD) is not being allocated for education," he said.

In 2004, Rp 593.49 billion was allocated for HRD in the province. Of that amount, only Rp 58.98 billion, or 2.27 percent of the province's total Rp 3 trillion budget, was allocated for education.

According to Awang, 20 percent of the total budget should be earmarked for education, as required by the Constitution and Law No. 21/2003 on national education, which requires 20 percent of the provincial budget to be allocated for education.

"We hope the education budget for 2005 will be Rp 520 billion from the total provincial budget of Rp 2.6 trillion," he said.

The head of the East Kalimantan Education Agency, Syafruddin Pernyata, said his office had proposed an education budget of Rp 397 billion this year.

The proposal has yet to be approved by the executive and legislative budget committees.

"I do not know whether the proposal has been approved or not by the East Kalimantan administration," he said.

East Kalimantan administration spokesman Jauhar Effendi said it was impossible to allocate 20 percent of the total budget for education because other sectors required urgent attention.

For example, the administration must construct at a cost of about Rp 840 billion a stadium for the 2008 National Games (PON).

"It is difficult for the administration to allocate 20 percent of the budget for education because it has to prioritize infrastructure and facilities," Jauhar said.