NGOs to play major role in illiteracy fight

Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are being asked to play a bigger role in the national illiteracy eradication program, which aims to increase the number of literate people by 4.45 million within the next 10 years.

Director General of Informal and Youth Education Fasli Jalal said more NGOs would be encouraged to become involved in the National Reading Campaign next year.

"We are trying to shift the responsibility from the government to citizens, in this case the NGOs," Fasli said on Monday.

The government literacy program reached 200,000 people in 2003, up from 57,000 people the previous year. The target for 2004 has been set at 445,000 people.

Fasli said the program would give each NGO involved in the program the freedom to choose the approach it felt worked best.

The latest data from the Ministry of National Education showed that of the country's population of 210 million, 37.4 million were illiterate. Of this number, 18.7 million were below the age of 10, 5.9 million between the ages of 10 and 44, and 12.8 million over the age of 45.

Poverty has been blamed for the increase in the number of illiterates in the country.

"Every year, children between the ages of six and seven are unable to attend school because of geographical and economic reasons. And approximately 200,000 to 300,000 elementary school students in grades one to three are forced to drop out because of financial reasons," Fasli said.

For this year's illiteracy eradication program, the government has allocated Rp 56.7 billion (US$6.67 million), or Rp 280,000 per person. For the NGO-run programs, the government has allocated Rp 62.8 billion, equivalent to Rp 310,000 per person, including overhead costs.

In 2004, the government will increase the budget to approximately Rp 150 billion, or Rp 337,000 per person.

The high incidence of illiteracy in Indonesia was a factor in its ranking in the World Health Organization's Human Development Index being lowered from 110 in 2002 to 112 out of 175 countries in 2003.