Education takes a backseat in Samarinda

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.