Officials puzzled over empty class

BOGOR (JP): Head of Bogor's ministry of education and culture office, Akos K.M., said his office has run out of ideas for persuading street children and underaged workers to attend informal classes.

For awhile, the office arranged for 50 street children to join lessons once a week, he said on Tuesday.

"The class went from 2 p.m. until dusk to allow them to work during the daytime," he recalled. "But the children only came in for the first two sessions. After that the number declined and eventually nobody was left in the class," he said.

The number of street children in Bogor totals 553, Akos said.

"When we checked their reasons for quitting our program, they simply said that spending the whole day in class would only cause serious losses in their daily earnings," Akos said.

The children reportedly returned to their previous activities of singing or selling in the street.

Akos urged people to contribute ideas of how to lure the children back to school. (24/edt)