Warief Djajanto Basorie, Contributor, Depok, West Java
Sixth-grade teacher Evanti Tungga Devi asks a female student to read a section on prime numbers from a paperback textbook titled Matematika: Cara Mudah Menghadapi Ujian Akhir 2007 (Mathematics: Easy methods for the 2007 final exam).
A prime number is a number that has only two factors, one of which is that number itself, the schoolgirl read out.
Eight boys and eight girls sit, some cross-legged, at unvarnished wooden desks 30 centimeters high. Each desk fits two pupils.
Is ""3"" a prime number, Evanti asks. ""Yes,"" the pupils reply in chorus. How about ""9""? A brief silence ensues. A boy raises his hand. No, he answers, because it has three factors: ""1"", ""3"", and ""9"".
Their earnestness underscores their intent to gain something from the free education they receive at Bina Insan Mandiri community learning center at the bus terminal in Depok, West Java, located 20 kilometers south of Jakarta.
""We're reviewing material for their final exam,"" said Evanti, an accountancy graduate. ""One problem the children have is not remembering their lessons. So I repeat the core points in class.""
Bina Insan Mandiri -- the name means to cultivate independent people -- is one of 19 community learning centers in Depok. These are tuition-free, nonformal learning centers for children and adults who had to drop out of school due to lack of funds.
The center's founder and chairman, 36-year-old Nur Rohim, spoke of the center's beginnings.
""I opened a warung (roadside eatery) at the terminal. Street kids gathered. I learned that most of them had stopped out of school, so I opened a learning center in 2000,"" said Rohim, an education graduate of a three-year vocational college.
The center is financed by government block grants and donations amounting to Rp 3-4 million a month. One grant comes every six months, another is released annually.
Rohim's small businesses like the warung, a print shop and a recycling plant also help cover costs, the entrepreneurial, one-time student organizer added. The recycling unit employs local scavengers who are also enrolled the center's literacy class.
Bina Insan Mandiri runs daily classes from morning to evening for preschool, elementary, junior high and high school levels. Some 1,500 students are currently registered, with 30 volunteer tutors leading classes.
Life-skills courses like sewing and computer are offered, too. The nearby University of Indonesia gives free computer instruction to two groups of 50 students each on Saturdays.
The center also holds adult classes in functional literacy to meet the basics in reading, writing and counting, with the first term recently ended.
One problem that arose, however, was that some vendors, scavengers and laundry workers registered at the center were embarrassed to attend classes because their children or grandchildren were also students there, Rohim said.
The center's pupils consist of street children, scavenger kids and buskers, as well as children of small-scale traders at the bus terminal, domestics and construction workers.
Meanwhile, its tutors span college students, graduates and homemakers. All teach on a volunteer basis, and do not receive any payment aside from a small transportation allowance.
Bina Insan Mandiri is one of numerous community learning centers in the country providing education to people who did not complete their formal education up to high school.
To compensate for this, they reenter basic education through the government-initiated Kerja Sambil Belajar (learning while working) program, which comes in three levels, or ""packages"".
Package A is for the primary school level, Package B is junior high school and Package C, senior high. The program's acronym, Kejar, means ""to catch up"".
The program's participants, who are a little older than their counterparts at regular schools, take a government-held final exam after each package is completed. Passing it earns them a diploma that is the equivalent of a regular school diploma.
The Kejar program is the government's answer to reduce the illiteracy rate among young people and adults. Although the initiative has increased adult literacy from 80 percent in 1990 to 90 percent in 2000, Indonesia in 2004 still had 15.1 million illiterates 15 years old and above, according to the 2007 Education for All Global Monitoring Report issued by UNESCO.
At the 2000 World Education Conference in Dakar, Senegal, 160 nations pledged to provide free, quality education for all, spelled out in six goals. Goal number three is that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programs.
On the ground, a sign of that commitment is the Depok community learning center. Although the center may lack materials and facilities, it is not lacking in the children's enthusiasm.
When asked why he came to the center, 13-year-old Abdul Rahman Tabrani replied: ""I want to gain knowledge and become a doctor."" Abdul's father is a construction worker who builds houses.
Reni Anggraeni, also 13, the daughter of a cake vendor at the terminal, harbors no high ambitions. She merely wanted to finish school and attended the center because her father couldn't afford to send her to a regular school. Reni is the third of seven children.
Providing the Kejar program for the 15 million Indonesians ""catching up"" in basic education is no easy task. It will be most difficult to cover those living in remote interior areas and in the vast archipelago's isolated islands.
In January 2007, the National Education Ministry linked arms with the Indonesian Teachers Union (PGRI) to increase nonformal education coverage. PGRI general chair H.M. Surya said its offices nationwide are open for nonformal education activities.
Separately, the West Java capital of Bandung has started a novel mobile classroom project. Tutors in buses equipped with laptops, DVDs, printers, a 500-book library, a tent and 20 folding chairs locate street children and hold classes along sidewalks.
The street children don't need to seek out a school or learning center; instead, the class comes to them.
The writer is a freelancer based in Jakarta, and can be reached at wariefdj@yahoo.com.
