C

hildren around the world are still lacking protection from adults as well as quality education from the government, a survey reveals.

The survey, which was conducted to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, showed that 32 percent of 6,040 children said they have not had enough protection from violence, abuse or other forms of threats.

The annual poll is conducted in the field by ChildFund Alliance, a network of 12 international development organizations whose work reaches more than 16 million children in 58 countries.

The organization hopes that the survey will raise awareness for children'€™s rights in an effort to end exploitation and violence by adults and nations.

Joanne Hashim, ChildFund Indonesia program director, said that the obligation of protecting children did not rest solely on the shoulders of the parents, but also on educational institutions, governments and all adults.

Based on the data released by UNICEF earlier this year, there are between 40,000 and 70,000 children in Indonesia who have become victims of sexual abuse and roughly 120 million who have experienced violent sexual abuse.

Other research by UNODC in 2012 also showed worrying statistics on the issue of child abuse by suggesting that the percentage of children who have become victims of human trafficking worldwide has increased from 20 percent between 2003 and 2006 to 27 percent in the 2007 to 2010 period.

'€œThere are children who get raped or become victims of abuse. Parents should step in and protect them,'€ Mita Damayanti, a vocational school student, said at the forum.

Joanne added that by spending more time communicating with their children, parents have made great contributions toward protecting their children from abuse because the children would afterwards be encouraged to speak up when they experienced abuse or were threatened with it.

Guru Naik, ChildFund Indonesia program director, said that besides getting protection from abuse and threats, getting a good education was also a very important issue for children.

'€œWe can see from the survey results that education is a big issue in Indonesia and other countries,'€ Guru said.

Almost half of around 100 Indonesian children surveyed (40 percent) said that the education system was the first sector that they would repair if they were elected as leaders of the country, while only 15 percent said that reviewing the policy of protecting citizens would be their priority.

The report suggested that the Indonesian government must increase its budget allocation for the education sector, particularly for the children who live in the underdeveloped areas of the country.

Guru said that while more children in big cities like Jakarta could have a good education with qualified teachers, there were a lot of children in remote areas who did not enjoy a similar privilege.

'€œBefore we think about quality of education, we have to raise a more basic question: how many children in the country have completed their education?'€ Guru said.

According to him, ChildFund Indonesia'€™s data showed that more than 90 percent of Indonesian students go to elementary school, however the number suffered a substantial drop when it came to secondary school and went even lower at the university level.

'€œFree education for people is a must. We should provide them with education first and then we can start to talk about the quality,'€ Guru continued.