Educators call for drive to help poor children

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Education analysts proposed on Thursday an intensive campaign to help millions of school age children who were unable to continue their education, saying that otherwise a tragedy for the country's future generations would ensue.

Mochtar Buchori, a former researcher with the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said that if the government was unable to develop meaningful programs to help such disadvantaged children, society should handle the problem.

He said informal education systems had thus far been developed by individuals and foundations who cared about the education of street children, the children of poor people living in slum areas and children who, along with their parents, were temporarily sheltering in refugee camps.

"If we can encourage as many individuals and organizations as possible to take part in such informal education programs, it would be a great help for poor children," Mochtar told The Jakarta Post.

Indra Djati Sidi, the director general of primary and secondary education, said some 27 percent of school age children between seven and 15 years, in all a total of 33.5 million children, were unable to continue with their schooling.

Since 1997, Indra said the government had been forced to abandon "various expansion projects", including the open university system of distance learning, due to the lack of funds.

The government has allocated Rp 16.1 trillion (US$1.6 billion) as the country's total education budget under the 2002 draft state budget (including both routine and capital expenditure). Of this amount, some Rp 11.6 trillion, or 24.7 percent of the total capital spending proposed in the draft budget, will be earmarked for education development projects.

By comparison, this year the total education budget reached about Rp 11 trillion.

Legislators have admitted that even though there has been an increase in the education budget, the additional funds are far from enough to ensure an ideal education system.

"Given that our country is on the brink of bankruptcy, it is up to society to achieve a breakthrough. I think promoting the informal education sector is the only way of helping students in this emergency situation," Mochtar reiterated.

"If there is no breakthrough to help them, it will be a tragedy for our future generations. How can they catch up with the speed of information technology development over the next 20 years if they don't go to school," he asked.

Another education analyst, Ace Suryadi, shared Mochtar's view, saying that society should be encouraged to take part in resolving the problems of education during the present crisis.

But in contrast to Mochtar, Ace said that the public should be encouraged to establish as many private schools as possible. He said that the government had no money to build more schools, particularly in the case of junior secondary schools.

The desperate situation, said Ace, had severely affected junior high schools as the government's goal since the crisis erupted in 1997 had been only to persuade those attending school not to drop out.

"We need private schools, particularly at the junior school level, to accommodate the children who have not been accommodated in the state schools," Ace told the Post by phone on Thursday.

According to Mochtar, in an emergency situation, an informal education system would be helpful for poor students whose parents could not afford school fees.

Therefore, he expressed gratitude to those who had taken the lead in providing informal education in several areas of the capital. He was referring to the Sekolah Anak Jalanan (Schools for Street Children), which have been established by the PaRaM non-governmental organization.

He said the government could help promote the informal education system by researching basic methods for teaching and learning activities in the informal sector.

While admitting that the informal sector would only be able to provide very basic education, including reading, writing and arithmetic, it would be enough to help the disadvantaged children get a start in life.