Government says illiteracy stands at 6 million

JAKARTA (JP): There are 6.07 million illiterate Indonesians between the ages of 10 and 44, an official said on Tuesday.

Antara news agency quoted the director of nonformal schooling at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Endro Sumardjo, as saying he hoped these six million people could become literate by the year 2004 through intensive courses.

The ministry earlier stated that its goal was to bring this number below five million by 1999, but the economic crisis helped make this target impossible to reach, he said.

There were 6.9 million illiterate Indonesians in 1997.

Endro, however, expressed optimism intensive language courses could reduce illiteracy by one million people per year.

In cooperation with local administrations, the ministry also sponsors continuing education for those who have recently become literate.

To commemorate the 34th International Literacy Day on Sept. 8, the ministry is preparing a number of activities, including seminars. The celebrations will be closed on Sept. 23 at the State Palace.

Endro also said scholarships were necessary to prevent more children from dropping out of school.

"The crisis has led to a higher percentage of both six to seven-year-old children who have dropped out of primary school; from 3.8 percent to 12 percent," Endro said, adding there was a total of 30 million elementary schoolchildren in the country.

The social safety net fund for education was around Rp 1.5 trillion for the 1998/1999 and 1999/2000 fiscal years, Antara reported.

Elementary school dropouts and children of elementary school age who never started school have fallen from 12 percent to 7 percent over this period, he said. (anr)