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)