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.