Millions of students may quit school

BOGOR, West Java (JP): About eight million elementary and junior high school students across the country may have to drop out of school of because of the prolonged economic crisis.

Hidayat Syarief, deputy chairman of the National Development Planning Board, said the latest prediction was much higher than the first estimate of "only" 2.8 million made in the early months of the crisis last year.

He said the prolonged economic crisis was also expected to cause an increase in the infant mortality and maternal mortality rates and increase malnutrition among children in the future.

"Because of the economic crisis, more and more children are expected to drop out of school, suffer malnutrition and various diseases, which will put their lives at risk. And this condition will certainly affect the quality of Indonesian human resources in the future," he said.

He added that many parents in rural areas will also be forced to remove their children from school because the children would be needed to help supplement the family's dwindling income.

According to him, the government and the public should adopt a sense of crisis and take immediate action to prevent a high dropout rate.

"Seen from the human resources point of view, a social security program is needed to assist those facing economic danger," he said at a seminar at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture yesterday.

The government recently increased the minimum working age to 15 from 10 in an endeavor to make the nine-year compulsory school program a success and to send about two million child laborers to school under the National Foster Parents Movement.

Hidayat called on all parties to help whenever possible during times of difficulty.

"We should go back to a simple way of life and strengthen our national solidarity in maintaining family resilience and national unity," he said. (rms)