Children bear brunt of poverty

Children from lower income families in Indonesia find it hard to dream big as poverty hampers their chances of receiving quality education — at least those fortunate enough to undergo education at all.

The government’s allocation of 20 percent of its annual budget for education has resulted in the mandatory nine-years of education being free of charge, but parents’ ignorance and other costs of education, such as extracurricular classes have kept children of poor families trapped in the poverty cycle.

Seno Maulana, a first grader at state elementary school 2 in Petamburan, Central Jakarta said he did not aim high.

Seno’s classmate said he wanted to be a cashier at a supermarket because that way he could work in an air-conditioned building.

“It would be nice to receive money from the buyers and count how much they have spent,” he said.

Ibu Dede Juariyah, who has been teaching at the school for 29 years, said that most of her students did not go to school to become respectable professionals, such as doctors, police officers or businessmen.

The children, she said, were pragmatic and realized the situation they faced at home.

“They realize their situation. They are from poor families. When they grow up, a job at a factory would be good enough,” she said.

She said a few of her students were different. “One day I met one of my old students and now he’s a subdistrict head. But most of them think in a simpler way,” she said.

The school is surrounded by lower to middle income families — many of whom have been living there for years.

Sari Mulya, the mother of first grader Fani Rahmasari, said that she also went to the same school. “It was my school and Ibu Dede was my first-grade teacher,” she said.

Sari sent all of her six children to the same school. “My oldest son now works at a factory,” she said.

Another mother, Aisyah, said sending her children to the public school was easier because, “it is tuition-free and near my home. [But] there are extra expenses.”

Although the school is free and the building and facilities adequate, the quality of teaching is questionable. The first-grade class on Friday was packed with 40 running and screaming children.

There was not much Ibu Dede could do to create order and teach properly. When she reprimanded one student, another dashed out of the class.

The building is used by four elementary schools. Two use it in the morning, another two in the afternoon. Because the neighborhood has no playground, the children in the are use the school’s corridors to play; the spaces are always packed with children playing and screaming, despite ongoing classes.

Dede said she could not set homework recommended by the national competence curriculum because her students, and their parents, found it too hard.

Several teacher training programs, she said, taught her to identify each student’s abilities and inform their parents of these. “However, what I face here, even their parents don’t really care about their children’s intelligence.”

She said that she had read American psychologist Howard Gardner’s theory that children have at least seven types of intelligence: linguistic, logic-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal.

“But why should I identify all of these if the parents are not even aware of this theory?” she said, adding that the parents would find the theory hard to understand.

She said the parents wanted the school to keep their children’s education as simple as possible. “They want their children to be able to read and write and count properly,” she said.

“Sometimes I forgo the educational advice given by the city’s education agency,” she said.

Dede said that teaching children from lower income families required great serenity and sensitiveness.

“If a student has been acting abnormally, I am sure his or her family is facing financial problems,”
she said.

She said the school tried its best to provide basic education for the children. Most of the students continue their education at the local public junior high school. “But after that, we don’t know whether they continue their education or not,” she said.

On Saturday, the country celebrated National Children’s Day. This year, the national day aims to raise awareness about children’s rights and the importance of “holistic integrated” child development to ensure children’s welfare and protection. (lfr)

• Parents want their children to be able to read, write and count
• Parents ask teachers to simplify the homework because they cannot understand it