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40,000 school dropouts in Banyumas, says regent
Banyumas Regent Achmad Husen has said around 40,000 children in the regency may have dropped out of elementary or secondary school, due to poverty, in 2014
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anyumas Regent Achmad Husen has said around 40,000 children in the regency may have dropped out of elementary or secondary school, due to poverty, in 2014.
He said the school dropouts came from 331 villages in 27 districts in Banyumas, adding that the number of students abandoning their studies in the regency tended to increase every year.
'In Tambak district, for instance, 1,685 children have dropped out of school. We are sure conditions in other districts are not so different to those in Tambak. If each district has around 1,500 school children, that means more than 40,000 children in Banyumas may be dropping out of school. This is very alarming,' Achmad told journalists on Thursday.
He said poverty was the principal cause of the high dropout rate in the regency, where many parents are unable to pay for their children to pursue higher education.
'We have established a survey team led by the Banyumas Education Agency. I hope that with this survey, we can determine the root causes of the problem. It is highly likely that poverty is not the single reason for the stubbornly high dropout rate,' Achmad added.
Banyumas is one of 29 regencies in Central Java and has the highest level of poverty in the province. Statistical data from 2008 showed that around 600,000 or 30 percent of the regency's total population of 1.8 million people lived at the poverty level. Increased unemployment in Banyumas during 2014 may result in figures not so different to those in 2008.
Achmad said the Banyumas administration had allocated Rp 500 million (US$41,459.4) for the survey to be carried out.
'By understanding the major causes for the dropouts, we can hopefully devise an appropriate policy to address the matter,' he said. (ebf)
