RI, Oz to develop gender-friendly schools, districts

A. Junaidi ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 03/10/2008 1:20 AM  |  Potpourri

Fathers go to work while mothers busy themselves cooking in the kitchen: This stereotype of men's and women's roles still exists in Indonesian elementary school textbooks.

The division of these gender roles is long outdated, since at least 10 percent of breadwinners in the country's 50 million households are women.

"It has been long known that our educational materials are gender biased," Ace Suryadi, chairman of the National Education Ministry's Working Committee on Gender Mainstreaming, said Friday.

Ace, who is also the ministry's director general for informal education, said stereotype roles were deeply rooted in Indonesia's patriarchal culture, in which families -- especially in the past -- prioritized education for boys over girls.

According to a data, he said, in the 1970s, about 40 percent of girls attended elementary school while 80 percent of boys went to school.

"That's why we now lack female professors, curriculum writers and decision makers," he said.

Although the percentage of boys and girls currently attending school is almost the same, Ace believes there are still problems in terms of quality of education between the genders.

He said the areas of study that led to higher-salary employment were still dominated by male students.

In cooperation with the Australian government, Ace said the ministry was working toward developing gender-friendly schools to achieve gender equality in education.

This effort is part of a program known as the Australia-Indonesia Basic Education Program (BIEP). Australia has contributed A$355 million (about US$277 million) to the see the program carried out from 2006 to 2011.

As of last year, 380 elementary and junior high school buildings had been built across the country under the BIEP. A further 2,000 schools are expected to be built by 2009.

Elementary and junior high schools in three regencies -- Pesisir Selatan regency in West Sumatra; Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara; and Kebumen in Central Java -- have been selected as pilot projects for the BIEP.

Despite being known for its gender-friendly culture, West Sumatra also tends to stereotype gender roles and marginalize women, with its district administrations (locally called Wali Nagari) dominated by men. Its council has also issued a bylaw that prohibits women from going out after dark.

Kebumen, which is led by a female regent, was selected for the program because the regency lacks an adequate education budget.

While East Nusa Tenggara was chosen due to widespread poverty in the province, which has resulted in an obvious gender gap in education.

"The program will begin next month ... we will start with Indonesian language teaching," said Rotua Valentina Sagala, the program's gender advisor.

Valentina said local leaders, regents, district and subdistrict heads, officials in education offices and teachers in the three pilot project areas had already undergone gender training.

She said local leaders would be expected to create gender-friendly situations in their own districts while the education officials and teachers would hopefully contribute to the establishment of gender-friendly schools.

"We hope teachers will come up with suggestions on how to be more gender responsive," she said.

If the pilot projects succeed, Valentina said, the program would be applied across the country.

She said the program was also part of the government's plan to reach one of the Millennium Development Goals, namely to eradicate gender inequality in basic education.

Illiteracy in Indonesia currently stands at 12.8 million people; 67 percent are women. Two thirds of the world's 800 million illiterate are women.

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