It’s 8 a.m. and time to go to school but 9-year-old Tia is still playing in the river near her house in Merkanding village, Muarojambi, Jambi province. Around 30 other school-aged children in the village are also playing and not attending school and usually spend their time playing or helping their parents.
Actually, Tia once attended the SD 158/IX elementary school in Pinang Tinggi village, which is half an hour away, on foot through an oil palm plantation, from her home.
But she could not stand being teased by her classmates.
“I was always being called the girl from the Kubu tribe,” she said.
For Bathin IX tribespeople, being called Suku Kubu is offensive as it insinuates the tribe is backward.
The villagers call them that, while the government refer to them as the Suku Anak Dalam.
They prefer to be called Orang Dalam, or people from the interior.
After a year, Tia decided to stop attending school, which she believes is better than being teased and called a Suku Kubu.
Tia’s uncle, Sadik, said the bullying had caused children in the village to stop attending the school.
He said hoped the government would build a school for the children so they would not be illiterate like him.
“Even if it wasn’t a permanent school, it would be good for our children,” he said.
He said the children would most likely learn in peace and would no longer be subject to ridicule by their peers if they had their own school.
Sadik said education was essential for the children, as they would not be cheated by middlemen during oil palm transactions if they could read, write and count.
“This is very sad,” said the spokesman of the Jambi-branch of the Indonesian Committee for Humanity’s Conservation (KKI Warsi).
She added the children could not attain an education although they were not far from the school.
She urged the government and relevant agencies to pay serious attention to the issue because the children had the right to an education.
“This is necessary so as to raise their dignity and ensure they are on par with the other villagers,” she said.
Special education supervisor at the Jambi Education Office Zulkiram, said the issue was complicated because it occurred in isolated areas in the province.
According to him, his office had initiated the Special Service Program (PLK) for members of the community, including those from isolated tribes, street children and child laborers. However, the program has yet to cover all residents due to financial constraint.
“The provincial administration must play an important role in addressing the issue,” he said.
Zulkiram said his office had also provided special service education to the community in Nyogan Segandi village, Mestong district, Muarojambi regency.
The central government, he said, had also provided assistance to a foundation to organize activities and equip them with teaching staff.
The foundation has been operating for the past three years and has 56 pupils, all from isolated tribes.
The foundation provides reading, writing and basic math lessons to the children as they are the most-needed skills by members in the isolated tribes, and after three years of operation many children can now read, write and count.
