M

akassar: The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that around 2.5 million school dropouts in South Sulawesi province may pose a threat in the future.

“The government must pay attention to the question of school dropouts as they may cause trouble in the future unless the case is handled carefully,” the province’s UNICEF chief coordinator, Iskandar, said on Sunday as quoted by Antara news wire.

Iskandar said that most of the school dropouts were employed as child workers.

Iskandar said the free school tuition program implemented by the local administration since 2008 had not yet helped the 2.5 million children to get proper education.

“The free school tuition program only helped those who had already attended school while the program had not covered children who could not afford to pay their tuition,” he said.