Home 
Publications Catalog Online Publications ADB Review Article
Back to Basics | |||||||
| MDG |
|
| 2 | Education |
BREAK TIME The children of Embang Kauh 2 Primary School, Jembrana
On Bali’s west coast, 3 hours from the tourist crowds of the island’s capital Denpasar and popular beaches of Kuta, Nusa Dua, and Sanur, is a hidden world of poverty that visitors rarely get to see.
Jembrana, about 120 kilometers west of these tourist areas, is Bali’s poorest district, where poverty levels approach 40%. Yet, outwardly, it is deceptively picture perfect, as with much of the Indonesian island. Kilometers of well-paved roads lead past neatly manicured rural communities, picturesque Hindu shrines, and stunning rice terraces overshadowed by distant volcanoes.
But this is a district where unemployment and underemployment are high, wages are low, and many people depend on casual or seasonal labor, mostly in the fields and on fishing boats. Such work nets them the equivalent of little more than $1 per day— about the cost of a single drink in one of Kuta’s clubs. That leaves little for basic subsistence, let alone health and education.
One such laborer is Antiri, who is only 32 but looks much older, her skin hardened by years of outdoor toil. “I am from a poor family,” she says. “I have to work hard if I want to put aside some money to pay for schooling of my children.”
One of her children, Susilo, 11, a student at Jembrana’s Negara 4 Junior Secondary School, is receiving assistance under a scholarship supported by an ADB-funded Decentralized Basic Education Project in the province.
“We give the parents Rp60,000 ($7) for equipment and clothes,” explains Juminah, the school’s headmistress, 47. “Three days later, the parents are required to report back to us what they have bought— bags, shoes, books, or uniforms.”
The village head, school committee, and teachers get together to identify the most needy children at the junior school. So far, they have allocated scholarships to 12 children of the 148-pupil school.
But the scholarships are just one small part of a project, supported by an ADB loan of $100 million and a Government contribution of $25 million that is also refurbishing the schools themselves.
Approved in November 2001, the Decentralized Basic Education Project is being undertaken over 7 years in Bali and the neighboring islands of Nusa Tenggara Barat, one of Indonesia’s poorest provinces with one of the lowest national enrollment rates for provincial primary, junior, and secondary education.
Indonesia’s drive to provide universal basic education, which covers nine years of primary and junior secondary schooling, predates by more than six years the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 2 of achieving universal primary education by 2015. The country set an initial target of 2003. But as the economy reeled from the 1997 Asian financial crisis and political turmoil, this was deferred to 2008.
According to ADB’s Key Indicators of Developing Asia and the Pacific 2003, Indonesia’s net enrollment ratio in primary education fell from 95.4% in 1995 to 92.2% in 2000, following three years of economic and political turmoil. The decline was similar to that seen in other crisis-afflicted nations.
At the same time, the country has been wrestling with decentralization. Effective January 2001, management and financing of basic education were devolved to district governments. Basic education was previously managed centrally through complex and compartmentalized structures in three ministries.
“The move from central control to decentralization puts great responsibility on the planning, monitoring, and evaluation on the district offices, schools, and communities themselves—and you have to build capacity for that,” says Dedi Karyana, the project’s secretary in Indonesia’s Ministry of National Education.
"The schools can now take charge
of education rather than be centrally planned "
Cecile Gregory,
ADB Principal Project Specialist
The project is equipping the schools and districts to fully cope with the challenges— and opportunities—posed by decentralization, explains Cecile Gregory, Principal Project Specialist and mission leader for the project. “The schools can now take charge of education rather than be centrally planned. The project aims to help this process so that the children will stay longer in school, achieve improved results, and have a curriculum that better serves their needs,” she says.
Since the academic year started in July 2003, the first funds from the project have been disbursed to 783 schools in the two island provinces. About 1,000 more will receive funds in the next academic year. Apart from the scholarships, these funds have been used mostly for light to medium physical school repairs and quality improvement, including the purchase of new books, reading aids, or training to upgrade the competence of teachers.
As the schools prepare the plans themselves, accountability to the local community for every rupiah spent is crucial, explains Mr. Sugiana, the project manager at the district education office. “This is the first time block grants have been channeled directly to schools for the school committee to manage,” he says. “We go to great lengths to ensure transparency so that parents and the school committees know how the money is being used.”
The schools post their accounts under the project on notice boards for all to inspect and conduct outreach activities to ensure transparency. For example, headmistress Juminah reaches those that cannot or will not see the accounts by having the reports read out at local community meetings.
To ensure community participation in the school’s rehabilitation, Mr. Sugiana says that local skills are being harnessed, which also cuts the costs of the work. “Local communities have contributed through their time and labor to help improve the conditions of the school, and have also given money directly,” he adds.
HEADING HOME A group of girls
In Jembrana, the project is slowly transforming some of the dingiest parts of the schools from physical wrecks to being clean and functional.
Cratered, dusty concrete floors in the classrooms have been replaced with new white tiles, dirty scuffed walls have been replastered, and dangerously worn bamboo thatched ceilings have been replaced.
One such school is Yeh Umbul 3 Primary School in Mendoyo Subdistrict, where the headmaster Suama says, “The classrooms here were in a critical condition. We have repaired three out of five of them.” Besides gleaming bright rooms, the project is bringing electric lighting to the refurbished classrooms for the first time.
A few kilometers down the road, Embang Kauh 2 Primary School is hoping for connection to the electric grid from counterpart funds in the next stage of the project. An average of 40 children aged 7–11 are crammed in each of the six dark classrooms, which get only limited natural light from the neighboring paddy fields. “When the weather is rainy and dark, we don’t ask the students to study in these rooms, we try to find some other activity for them to do,” says headmaster Nurawa.
The poor conditions are matched by the state of the teaching aids. The students’ books are ragged and overused. The school is soon expecting new books provided by the project.
In its first year, the physical improvements and school grants under the project are making a mark. Education officials say the dropout rate for basic education (age 7–12) has dropped from 5% two years ago to 0.02% in 2004, while the gross enrollment rate has risen by 117% from less than 90% over the same period.
But education remains an uphill struggle for the poor in Jembrana. “I am thankful for the extra money, otherwise I would not be able to send my daughter to school,” says fisherman Narka, whose 11- year-old daughter, Noviastini, receives scholarship money at Negara 4 Junior Secondary School. When asked what she wants to be when she grows up, Noviastini immediately says: “A doctor.” Her father cuts in, laughing: “I don’t have money for that.”
Attaining such a level of education may seem an insurmountable challenge to this father and child. But the message is getting through that education makes good economic sense for poor families, whose children will have higher earning potential, even if they may never fulfill all their dreams. And for headmistress Ms. Juminah, that provides a ray of hope.
“I try to motivate parents and children and stress the importance of finishing school, as motivation to attend school has been low in this area,” she says. “Now they are beginning to respond. I hope that these children in the future can now have a better life than their parents.”
© 2008 Asian Development Bank Privacy | Terms of Use |
 Top of page |