Women struggle for better education

Women struggle for better education

By Stevie Emilia

KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara (JP): Paulina Li has been working
hard for 20 years, weaving tenun ikat, the traditional cloth of
Sabu Island, and peddling it door-to-door and to various hotels
in her area.

The 48-year-old resident of Airnona district, Kupang, has only
a primary school education, but she vows that her two daughters
will each receive as high a level of education as she could
manage to help them achieve.

"I don't have good education, but I want my children to do
better," said Paulina, who also sent her youngest sister through
school. "I particularly want my daughters to even go to
universities."

Paulina's determination is an exception rather than the norm
in her community. Here, she said, people believe that it's better
to send sons through schools because girls, no matter how highly
educated they are, would end up doing the cooking at home and
following their husbands around.

Paulina's eldest daughter graduated from a secretary college
and is now working in Jakarta. Her second daughter is currently
studying law at the state-owned Cendana University here.

"My only son doesn't have good grades, while my daughters are
achievers. So why should I hold my daughters back and push my son
to do what he is unable to do?" she said.

Paulina's son is currently working as a driver here.

Paulina's husband, Ambros Rusli, is the principal of a primary
school in Central Kupang. He has found that girls are better
achievers than boys.

Unfortunately, more girls have to either drop out of primary
school or not continue to junior high schools because their
usually poor parents choose to send boys.

"The local people here think that men should have better
educations than girls, and so they prioritize their sons," Rusli
said.

East Nusa Tenggara is among the provinces with high illiteracy
rates. In 1990, around 450,000 people between the ages of 10 to
44 (or 21.9 percent of the province's population) are illiterate;
half of them are women. The rate, however, dropped to 17.4
percent by 1994.

Susi M.D. Katipana, a representative of the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the area, said a great number of
women have to drop out of schools because their parents need them
to do chores at home.

"People here think that once a daughter reaches the age of six
that she should replace her mother doing the housework," Susi
said. "Or, they'd rather have their daughters marry young, so
that they won't have to bear the label `old spinsters'," she
added.

In 1994, Indonesia launched the 9-Year Compulsory Basic
Education Program in an effort to reduce the dropout rate among
children of both genders and provide equal schooling
opportunities for girls.

President Soeharto said in the same year that in the
Compulsory Basic Education Program, Indonesia will pay greater
attention to the education of girls.

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

Official statistics show that 18.4 million boys in the seven
to 15 age group were attending schools, along with 17.3 million
girls.

The head of the provincial Ministry of Education and Culture
office, Cornelius Mbeo, said that so far, the government's effort
has been hampered by its tight budget.

He pointed out that most students have to leave schools mid-
season to help their farming parents either in planting or
harvesting. "After a week of harvesting, for instance, those
students usually feel reluctant to go back to school," he said.

A limited budget has also been preventing his office from
achieving its short-term target of increasing enrollment, he
said. "We need more facilities and buildings to accommodate the
students," Cornelius said.

The province needs about 3,300 junior high schools to
accommodate 59,000 graduates of 3,909 primary schools. There are
currently only 530 junior high schools here.

Data at the Ministry of Education showed that 39,325 primary
school students had to drop out of school in 1993/1994 because
there were not enough junior high schools to receive them.

The poverty factor also plays a role. The annual income per
capita in East Nusa Tenggara is considered to be one of the
lowest in the country. In 1995, the figure was Rp 600,000
(US$255), as compared to the national figure of Rp 2.4 million.

According to a 1992 United Nations Development Program study,
Indonesia spends 4.5 percent of its state budget on education,
one of the lowest levels in Asia.

The government, however, says that the total funds spent in
1992/93 were US$1.494 million -- or 13.1 percent of the budget --
with only the transportation, mining and energy sectors
attracting more funding.

Cornelius focused on another, relatively neglected element in
education: teachers who are underpaid and unappreciated.

"East Nusa Tenggara has many islands, and some of the teachers
have to teach in schools which are located in remote areas. You
can't imagine how difficult it is to convince those teachers to
remain teaching there," Cornelius said.

The 1994 Census revealed that East Nusa Tenggara has a
population of more than three million people spread across 42
islands of the province's 566 islands.

"Teachers in the remote places need more attention, so that
they would able to maintain their enthusiasm teaching in those
difficult-to-reach areas," Cornelius said.

"The attention doesn't always have to mean more money," he
said. "How about helping part-time teachers gain permanent jobs?"

"They don't ask for much," he pointed out. "They don't need
glamorous things. They choose teaching as their profession
because most of them consider it a call."

Herman Hawutiaba, a primary school teacher in Semarak, agreed.
He pointed out that his monthly salary of Rp 200,000 is enough
for him, his wife and their two children.

"The problem is, prices keep going up. Every time we get a
raise, the price increases affect us. The prices increase first,
so the raise doesn't mean much," he said.

Indonesia currently has around 1.5 million teachers. Every
year, some 17,000 new teaching graduates fight for positions in
public schools.

By the year 2020, the country will need only 1.1 million
elementary school teachers and 1.195 million junior and senior
high school teachers.