Too Poor for School: Economic Barriers to Education in Banten
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5 January 2019 17:53 WIB
In Banten, there are more than seven million unemployed workers. Education Consultant at the Ministry of Education and Culture Indonesia Doni Koesoema says this unemployment rate is linked to low education levels that in turn are connected to socio-economic factors and accessibility to local schools.
“If you just graduate from elementary school, you can only really do physical work, more so in the informal job sectors,” he says. “If they have formal employment, they are usually only waiting tables, welcoming people, or cleaning.”
Education Consultant at the Ministry of Education and Culture Indonesia Doni Koesoema talking is enthusiastic about the Ministry’s education goals. Photo by Hannah Or.
Figures from the Head Education Officer in Tangerang indicate 92 percent of the district’s children, including those in Banten, participate in some form of schooling. For every five of those children, three will never obtain an education higher than an elementary school level.
As Doni says, higher education is needed to obtain gainful, advantageous employment, if indeed, employment at all. Lackluster or nonexistent employment status reaps little to no income, prompting a low socio-economic or poor life, which can spark the beginning of a poverty cycle that future generations will struggle to escape.
Tangerang’s Head Education Officer, Taryono, believes that Banten’s low education levels, and resulting high rates of unemployment and poverty, are not driven solely by economic factors, but instead, have arisen and been worsened as the result of urbanization.
Taryono points to the impact of urbanization on the Open Middle School (SMP Terbuka) system as an example of this. The Tangerang Education department has set up five Open Middle Schools where elementary school graduates can receive higher education for free, with the government providing free tuition, shoes, books, and uniforms.
An influx of people moving into the district from rural areas have limited and restricted the availability of places in these schools, and also the availability of employment and increased job competition upon graduation, Taryono says.
Some state and Open Middle Schools in Banten are only able to accept a minimal amount of students of only five or six classes worth.
When these classes fill up, all the other children in the area are forced to find schooling elsewhere, whether that means attending a private school or even a state school in another province, Doni says.
This pushes another round of costs onto the families, whether it be expensive private school tuition fees or even just the cost of transport to schools elsewhere.
This combination of factors plays a serious role in the overall low-levels of education in Banten which, in turn, causes unemployment rates to rise.
“Some public schools’ enrolment rate is so high, that children can’t be enrolled [in their local school] and have to search for other schools which are far away; and as a result, many are like ‘Meh, just don’t go to school because it is difficult,’” says Teacher’s College student Selly Veronica.
