Govt to send poor kids to school

Govt to send poor kids to school

JAKARTA (JP): The government is to open a special registration
procedure so more children of poor families can go to school at
this time of crisis, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare
and Poverty Alleviation Haryono Suyono said here on Wednesday.

The registration will start late April after the government
completes its inventory of children requiring assistance to
remain in school, Haryono said after a meeting with Yoshi Teru
Uramoto, Planning and Advocacy officer of the United Nations
Children's Fund (Unicef), at his office.

School registration usually opens in June and July.

"The special registration program will be launched on May 2 by
President B.J. Habibie, to coincide with National Education Day
celebrations," Haryono said.

The inventory-taking of eligible poor children was underway,
Haryono pointed out.

Around 2.5 million children have had to drop out of schools
and universities on account of the economic crisis; the figure,
however, was much smaller than the earlier projected 8 million.

The government introduced the six-year basic compulsory
education program in 1994, and later changed it to nine years in
order to cover the three years of high school education.

The Central Bureau of Statistics said in 1997 that the
illiteracy rate here is 10.9 percent of the total population of
200 million. A total of 13.22 percent of all children over 5
years of age have not yet been sent to school.

Uramoto expressed hope that the private sector and other
elements in society would help maintain children in school, and
Unicef would help them find the most effective way for them to do
so.

Unicef has sponsored the campaign to raise people's awareness
of the need to keep children in school. This campaign includes
the televised message of Ayo Sekolah (Let's go to school)
featuring the popular actors Rano Karno and Mandra. (01)