Many still need convincing over importance of education

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Should poverty be blamed for people ignoring the importance of education? Or is it their lack of education that leads to poverty?

Creating a system of community-based education, which also empowers them economically, would help cut the vicious circle, sociologists said on Wednesday.

"Poor people's ignorance of education is triggered by the fact that education often fails to help them have a better life," educational expert Darmaningtyas told The Jakarta Post.

Such a view, he added, caused them consider education as a mere formality.

In many cases, senior high school graduates cannot get jobs and are forced to become low-paid blue-collar workers, which was not in accordance with their level of education.

Darmaningtyas said authorities should try to convince the poor that education was important for their children in order that they could have a better life.

"They need to be convinced that education can create better opportunities for their children," he said, adding that an modified form of education may suit them better.

For example, local communities have independently initiated alternative education to gain much-needed life skills as they felt that formal education was not providing what they actually needed, especially in rural areas.

Sociologist Imam Prasodjo suggested that the concept of a community-integrated educational institution should be made an option. "A public school, for example, could have a plot of land, on which local people can work and generate money to fund education activities," he said.

A public school could then be independent and no longer need subsidies from the government, he added. "Such an approach would empower the local economy as well."

On Monday, a study jointly conducted by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and market research company Taylor Nelson Soffres (TNS) revealed that 19 percent of school aged children from Indonesian poor families could not afford to attend school.

The finding was cited as the main factor behind the high number of child laborers in the country. This problem had to be dealt with by first dealing with two other problems: poverty and a lack of education among some parents, said an official from the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of National Education's director general for elementary and secondary education Indra Jati Sidi said that his office has done everything possible to try and reduce the number of children dropping out of school.

"We include street children in our retrieval programs, providing them a more suitable education because they cannot fit into regular schools," he said, adding that the ministry estimates that only two percent of elementary aged children do not attend school.

The education ministry has said that Indonesia will begin to enforce its compulsory nine-years of education by July, the start of the 2005 academic year. Therefore, there should no longer be any reason for poor parents not to send their children to school.

Despite the fact that community empowerment programs in education serve as an option to encourage poor families to take education seriously, providing free compulsory education was still a government obligation, activists said.

"No matter what, the government must provide compulsory education as stated in the (Indonesian) Constitution," Coalition for Education coordinator Suparman said. (003)