Over 12,000 students drop out

JAMBI, Jambi: More than 12,000 elementary school pupils in the province of Jambi quit their schools during the 1999/2000 academic year due to financial problems, an official said on Tuesday.

The head of the provincial Ministry of National Education Office, Dasril Syam, said to The Jakarta Post that the number was 3.25 percent of children aged between seven and 12 years old in Jambi.

According to Dasril, the number of children going to school in Jambi had been decreasing from year to year.

In the 1997/1998 academic year 98.7 percent of school-aged pupils went to school, in the following year only 97.47 percent of the children could afford their education, he said, without mentioning the real figures.

"In the 1999/2000 academic year the figures decreased to 95.42 percent, or 344,234 pupils," he said, adding that the figures did not include those who quit elementary school.

According to Dasril, the stoppage of the social safety net fund from the government in 1999/2000 played a role in the decreasing number of children going to school.

"This problem must be addressed properly, otherwise we will lose our future", he said.

Dasril said he was currently collecting accurate data on levels of high school student dropout. (33)