Despite being the nation's third-most successful province in implementing the nine-year compulsory education program, Bali still has a large number of school-age children not attending school, an official says.

Data from the Bali Education Agency shows 105,803 children unable to attend formal schools. Some 35,073 are between the ages of 13 and 15, the range for junior high school students, while 70,730 are 15-18, the age of senior high students.

"There are several factors that cause this condition. First, economic background; most of their families cannot afford to send their children to senior high school," head of secondary and vocational education at the education agency I Gusti Ngurah Ketut Widiartha told The Jakarta Post in Denpasar on Wednesday.

"Second, geographical factors. Senior high schools mostly are located in the district capital, thus hampering students from families in remote villages."

He also pointed to cultural factors.

"Many parents here still hesitate to send their children, especially girls, to attend school far from home," he said.

However, he added, the agency recorded a 113.61 percent gross participation rate (APK) among elementary school students.

"There are 369,896 children aged seven to 12, but our records show there are currently 420,242 elementary school students," he said, adding this meant more than 50,000 elementary students were under the age of seven.

"Our records show 164,620 children aged 13 to 15, while junior high school attendance reaches only 129,547," he said.

For high school, 94,462 of 165,192 eligible students were in school.

"These facts should be the focus of our attention if we want to implement compulsory education of 12 years," he said.

Asked whether the existing school infrastructure wasn't enough to accommodate all senior high school students, he suggested it was more a distribution problem, since most high schools and vocational schools were located in major cities or district capitals.

"So some of the schools have more students than they can accommodate but others lack students," Widiartha said.

He added that this year the agency planned to establish an additional senior high school, whose location had yet to be determined, and around 95 new classrooms. It also planned to renovate some 60 classrooms.

Head of the Bali Education Agency Tia Kusuma Wardhani said education participation in Bali was high compared to other provinces.

"We have met the national target for gross participation rate for the 9-year basic compulsory education program. In 2007 we reached 99.65 percent of APK, which is higher than the national target of 95 percent," she told the Post.

She said Bali ranked third in the completion of the basic compulsory education program after Jakarta and Yogyakarta.

However, she said two regencies still had relatively low APKs, Buleleng and Karangasem.

"Both regencies have around 91 percent APKs," she said, adding her agency was focusing on improving attendance in both regencies.

"We will conduct distance learning programs for junior high school students, establish elementary schools and junior high schools in remote areas and Kejar Paket B equivalency programs," she said.

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