RI to take heed to girls' education

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto opened the Second Asia- Pacific Ministerial Meeting on Women in Development yesterday, pledging to pay greater attention to the education of young women.

Soeharto said educating the young women will have multiple benefits, including the improvement of the quality of the future generations and the enhancement of the nation's standing.

"In carrying out the Nine Year Compulsory Education, we will pay greater attention to the education of girls," he said, addressing 31 ministers and other high-ranking officials from the region's participating countries.

"We believe that the education of girls will bring about multiple benefits, because it will improve and enhance the quality of the coming generations, and, at the same time, enhance the nation's dignity and standing."

Indonesia launched the 9-Year Compulsory Basic Education in May, in an effort to reduce the drop-out rate among children of both genders and provide equal schooling opportunities for girls.

Official statistics show 18.4 million boys in the seven to 15 year old age groups were attending school, along with 17.3 million girls.

In his address, President Soeharto said the government would strive to expand employment opportunities for women and promote their productivity.

"We are improving the quality of our female labor force by giving special attention to the enhancement of their skills, productivity, well-being and protection. This includes those who are working overseas," he said.

"Our protection of the female labor force focuses on occupational hygiene and safety, career opportunity and social services," he added.

During the preliminary five-day senior official meeting (SOM) of the conference, which concluded on Saturday, the issues of equal employment opportunities and lack of protection for female workers provoked debate among participants. Some country delegates called for similar protection for migrant women workers, both legal and "illegal" or undocumented.

The two-day ministerial conference is being attended by about 600 participants from 54 countries and a number of donor agencies and United Nations' bodies. The issues of equality, sustainable development, and peace will become the focus of the meeting.

The conference is also expected to deliberate, and later ratify, drafts of the Jakarta Declaration and Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women in Asia and the Pacific.

Poverty alleviation

"Solidarity, partnership and harmony between men and women are our guidance in the effort to enhance the position and role of women in the family, society and process of development," Soeharto said. "Our experience so far shows that, by abiding to this principle, we have been able to raise the contribution and role played by women in development, including in the alleviation of poverty."

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is sponsoring the conference.

UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's special envoy to the conference, Gertrude Mongella, said in her address to the opening ceremony that Asia Pacific is the only region that has four women as democratically elected heads of government.

However, the average participation of women in parliament (5.5 percent), government (2.2 percent) and at the top layer of the civil service (2.6 percent) remains far below the world average and ranks lowest among all the regions, she said.

"National decisions which also affect women have been made with little or no participation from women," said Mongella.

She is also the Secretary-General of the Fourth World Conference on Women, to be held in Beijing in September 1995.

"Yet, without the full participation of women, democracy cannot be achieved or maintained," she said.

ESCAP Executive Secretary Rafeeuddin Ahmed reiterated that some of the goals incorporated in the Forward-Looking Strategies, which were adopted in the World Conference on Women in 1985 in Nairobi, should be achieved by the year 2000.

Among the goals were the elimination of female illiteracy, the increase of the life expectancy for women to at least 65 years of age, a good quality of life, the establishment of equal opportunities for self-supporting employment and laws guaranteeing equality for women in all spheres of life. (swe)