Modest school delights poor Pedongkelan children

JAKARTA (JP): Unlike many girls her age, Titi, 11, does not begin the day by eating breakfast and getting ready for school.

Titi instead spends her mornings helping her mother take care of her baby brother in the family's five-by-six meter tin-roofed, plywood-walled house in the Pedongkelan slum in East Jakarta.

While Titi plays with her younger brother, their housewife mother, Sumaryati, does the household chores and their father Casman, a scavenger, prepares his cart to go out into the streets to pick up trash, like bottles and cans, which can be resold.

A couple of hours later, Titi usually goes out to play with her friends in the neighborhood.

Sometimes, she goes with her two sisters to sing on city buses for money. Usually, the three girls return home late in the evening, after taking a short lunch break at home.

Titi, her sisters and many of their friends in Pedongkelan have the same daily schedule: helping parents, begging on the streets and back home to sleep.

During the rainy season, the children and their parents spend most nights on the side of the nearby toll road because their houses, located on low ground, are often flooded.

Most of the children in the neighborhood have dropped out of school because their parents cannot afford the school fees.

"The Rp 5,000 a month fee is too much for us, especially since we had three daughters who went to school," said Sumaryati, adding that her husband only earned Rp 30,000 a month.

In an attempt to help support the family, Sumaryati does the laundry for "wealthy" residents who live nearby, earning some Rp 40,000 a month.

But this money does not go far, especially in these current times of hardship.

About a month ago, the family received good news, like a light in the dark.

Titi and her two sisters can return to school, not the one they previously attended, but a different one in their neighborhood. This is thanks to the generosity of PaRam, a non- governmental organization.

After begging on the streets, the children will return home at 3 p.m., when classes begin at the new school, which charges a monthly fee of Rp 1,000. In return, each of the students receives free books and writing paper.

"It's better for them, rather than playing around all day long," said Sumaryati, who is illiterate.

Titi, who is in the third grade, looks forward to attending school again, although she has not forgotten her bad experiences at her last school, Bintang Pancasila Foundation elementary school, which is located nearby.

"The teachers at the school, for example, didn't allow me to go on the field trips unless I paid Rp 30,000," she said.

Her new school is a two-story plywood structure. There are no chairs and tables for the students or the teachers. The only items in each of the two 30-square-meter classrooms are a blackboard and a small wooden cupboard.

The school, officially opened on Wednesday, is managed by PaRam as part of its empowerment program for the poor.

There are six teachers at the school, all students from the Jakarta Teachers College who are volunteering their time.

During last week's inauguration ceremony, PaRam head Farid R Faqih said the organization funded the school independently.

"We got the money from selling inexpensive rice, for which we collected Rp 2 for every kilogram we sold.

"Besides that, we have a joint program with the United Nations World Food Program (WFP)," he said.

Also attending the ceremony were NGO activist Mulyana Kusumah, Bishow B. Parajuli from the WFP and Assumpta A. Ayerdi from the Jakarta office of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

PaRam has founded four other schools, in Kampung Kakap Penjaringan and Bunderan Kamal Muara in North Jakarta, in Pekojan, West Jakarta, and in North Cipete, South Jakarta. PaRam spends some Rp 27.5 million per year on each of the schools.

According to Farid, the project targets children of poor families between the ages of 5 and 12 who are not currently attending school.

The curriculum is more simple than state schools, teaching only math, social science and religion.

"For now, we are only focusing on freeing these kids from illiteracy," said Farid.

He said the organization found the Pedongkelan slum area by accident while conducting surveys.

The slum is home to more than 2,500 people. Most of the men, like Casman, earn their livings as scavengers. But some 30 others work as dokar (horse-drawn carriage) drivers. These men make more money than scavengers, earning between Rp 15,000 and Rp 30,000 a day.

"I usually take people to Tanjung Priok, Cempaka Putih and Jatinegara, charging them Rp 500 for children and Rp 1,000 for adults," said Herman, one of the carriage drivers.

Children everywhere, when asked, generally express a slight distaste, at the least, for school. However, here in Pedongkelan the presence of the PaRam school is one of celebration, giving kids in the slum the opportunity to go to school like other children and learn.

As Titi said with a broad smile: "I'm happy to go back." (09)