Millions of students may quit school

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)