Street children ignored by education program

JAKARTA (JP): Seven-year-old Heri roams the alleys of the Ramayana shopping complex in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, for scraps discarded by local restaurants.

"What's important is that I eat," he said. "My parents? I don't remember them."

Two years ago, Heri became the youngest member of a group of street children who sleep, work and earn their livings in Jatinegara. They survive by busking, shining shoes, carrying shopper's bags or by scavenging. As the smallest member of the gang, Heri's job is to beg from shoppers and passers-by.

The older members of the gang, such as Febri, Dadang and Doel, make between Rp 2,000 (US$.85) and Rp 5.000 a day. They spend most of their money, needed for food and clothing, on computer games in the arcade in the shopping complex.

The children are busy, but they said they sometimes wished to go to school.

Senior researcher Mely G. Tan at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences said that children, such as Heri and his friends, need education.

The success of the government's six and nine year compulsory education programs throughout the country deserve applause, she said, but they have let people forget there are street children who still don't have access to proper education.

"It's such an ambitious program, making all children between seven and 15 years attend school," she said. "If it's such a success, then how come we still see children roaming parks and the streets?"

She also mentioned the children who worked as "jockeys" to fill vehicles passing through Jakarta's "three-in-one" areas: "Aren't they supposed to be in school?"

President Soeharto launched the Nine Year Compulsory Education Program in 1994. It requires children to attend six years of primary school and three years of junior high school.

The scheme was an extension of the highly lauded six year compulsory education program which was launched in 1984. Now 94 percent of all children aged between seven and 12 years attend school.

Official data for 1995 showed that 26.5 out of one million children aged from seven to 12 years could not attend school.

Mely admitted that not all street children were willing to go to school. "But we'll just have to assume that they are willing to learn and we must never ignore them," she said.

She suggested that the government involve more non-government organizations' (NGOs) activists and social workers to approach street children to give them education.

"Those children will take just one look at the dispatched government officials and they will scurry away," Mely said. "They need people that they can trust."

Promises

I.B. Edi Karyanto of the Jakarta Social Institute, a NGO actively helping street children, said the children would accept people who were really concerned about them and their education.

"They don't want people who just make promises and give them food while cameramen and photographers are around taking pictures of them," he said.

"Please remember, street children are different from any other group of children," Edi said. "They have a certain subculture that guides their conduct. It's impossible to expect them to submit to our values or standards just like that."

Many street children in urban centers such as Jakarta live around river banks and waste dumps. Many of them suffer various abuses and have to endure frequent raids and arrest by city officials who beat them and label them criminals.

Wuryanto, a member of the House of Representatives' Commission IX on education affairs, criticized the government for its sluggish attempt to help street children.

"The government must set up concrete plans of action on special education for street children," he said.

Subculture

Educator Annah Suhaenah Suparno agreed, saying that education for street children should be designed to fit their conditions and interests.

"Forcing street children to attend schools would be fruitless because they have become accustomed to their own subculture, and because they have proved they can survive in a tough world," Annah, rector of the Jakarta Teacher Training Institute, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Education programs for street children should be equivalent to elementary school curriculum, but prepared in a different way. "It is not necessary for the children to go to schools to get education. The tutors who should go to them, instead," Annah said.

Makmur Sanusi, a national consultant at the Ministry of Social Services, which collaborates with the United Nations Development Program project on street children, said that several plans had been drawn to help street children.

For instance, tutors would befriend the children before introducing them to activities which would hopefully raise the children's awareness about health and society.

Academic knowledge would be given as secondary information, instead of being the main focus, he said, adding that he expected this plan would start soon.

The United Nations Children's Fund classifies street children into three categories.

Category one covers children on the streets who have completely abandoned their homes, families and schools, and stay on the streets for more than nine hours a day. This year's official data indicates that 15 percent of Indonesia's children who roam the streets fall into this category.

Category two covers children on the streets who remain connected to their families, but abandon school and stay on the streets less than nine hours a day; 35 percent of Indonesia's children on the streets fall into this category.

Category three covers those who are at a high risk of becoming street children, who live with their parents, attend school and stay on the streets for about four hours a day; 50 percent fall into this category. (31/swe)