Within sight of schools, aspring students yearn for a better life.

There was once only a swamp 1 kilometer from the infamous landfill in Bantar Gebang, Bekasi, West Java.

In 2004, the government built a now prestigious vocational school there. Lush trees surround the greenish-yellow SMKN 2 Bekasi vocational high school building, rising high behind the black front gates to cast a welcome shade across the schoolyard.

Small neatly lettered signs in front of each tree identify them with both their scientic and common names: mahogany, bullet wood, jackfruit, mango, sapodilla and orange.

Just three minutes away, Wahyu Astri, an eigth grader, who lives in the Ciketing Udik scavengers’ village in Bantar Gebang, dreams of continuing her education with admittance into the school, which provides various kinds of extracurricular activities, ranging from a Japanese Club to Quran recitation. The SMKN 2 Bekasi vocational high school, which is very popular — accepting more than 500 new students each year — has also featured cultural exchange visits with Saikyo Senior High School in Kyoto, Japan, for three years now.

Astri, who wants to be successful and make her parents proud, wants to go to the vocational school because she plans to work while studying at university to help her parents financially.

Her parents work as scavengers in Bantar Gebang. Astri’s mother, Daniti, never went to school because, as the oldest child, she had to take care of her younger siblings.

Then, when she got married and became a mother, she had to take care of her own children.

Astri is the youngest child in the family. None of her older brothers completed secondary level education. One of them currently helps their parents work at the landfill.

A few of her friends from elementary school have also dropped out of school. They did not see the point of going to school, which is costly.

“A few of those kids play, nongkrong [sit around idly] or busk,” Astri explained.

The notion that the harder one works, the wealthier one can become is not readily embraced by the families in Bantar Gebang.

Astri’s parents work from morning to afternoon, collecting trash in the giant garbage dump. In the evening, they still need to deliver and sell the used paper they have found to a paper recycling plant, where they sometimes must queue for hours.

For women, the working hours are even longer. They have to wake up at dawn to do the household chores, such as washing clothes and dishes and cooking meals for the family.

The money earned, however, is barely enough for them. Astri’s school tuition is among their greatest expenses because she was forced to resort to registering at a private Islamic junior high school because her parents had no family card (KK) at the time.

In her home made of bricks and plywood, Astri explained that her school fee was often in arrears.

The local government has been trying to solve the problem of the cost of higher education. In West Java, state schools are obligated to provide more affordable tuition or even educate students from lower-class families for free.

Ahmad Birul Walid, vice principal for student curriculum, explained that SMKN 2 Bekasi had established the special Jalur Afirmasi (The Road to Affirmation) program for children from impoverished families in 2017. Junaedi and Taufik Hidayat, both in 11th grade now, were accepted through the program last year.

Jaenudin, who lives in Pendurenan, has a 30-minute motorcycle ride to school. His father works as a plastic cleaner for a small plastic recycling, or lapak, business. Once in a while, Jaenudin helps his father sort the plastic, but hopes to one day get a better paying job.

Both Jaenudin and Taufik want to get jobs at big companies, which are more accessible with a high school diploma. They also plan to continue to a higher level of education after graduating to become entrepreneurs.

Jaenudin also wants to teach others. “So I can apply my knowledge,” he explained.

Astri dreams of becoming a doctor, so she will be able to help many people.

This year, the West Java Education is rolling out a new program called Jalur Warga Penduduk Setempat (The Path of Resident) that eases admission for children living nearest to the schools in the region.

The nearer the house of an applicant is to a state school, the higher the chance the child will be accepted. Applicants are required to have lived at their stated address for at least six months. Ten percent of this year’s intake of around 50 students will enter school through this program.

However, access for the children of scavengers has remained problematic. Last year the parents in Bantar Gebang protested in front of SMKN 2 Bekasi because their children living nearby were not accepted.

Birul said that some people had suggested that the children of lower-class families be prioritized for the ease-of-access and other assistance programs.

“How come there’s a school right before their eyes, but they can’t enter it?” Birul wondered out loud.

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Live-In Experience is part of the two-month tutorial and on-the-job-training sessions provided for young journalists of The Jakarta Post as part of its recruitment and training program. Participants are attached with selected families of the less fortunate in order to provide them with the direct experience of living with the frequently forgotten segment of Indonesian society. Istu Septania and Norman Harsono spent their two nights and three days living with two different families at the Bantar Gebang dumpsite neighborhood in Bekasi, a suburb of Jakarta.

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