Education
The development of a nation requires a certain critical mass in education; in other words, a significant percentage of the population needs to have a level of education adequate for supporting rapid economic and social development. Indonesia’s Nine-Year Compulsory Basic Education Programme aims to develop this critical mass and equip society with basic knowledge and skills—whether for going on to higher levels of education, earning a living, making choices or being able to benefit from technological advances and compete with other countries.
Unfortunately, disparities in Sulawesi lead to quite disappointing figures. According to 2004 statistics, the total population with secondary level education (high school and above) averages 20.7% while in North Sulawesi it is 28.62 % and in South-East Sulawesi it is 21.31%, while the lowest educated population is concentrated in Central Sulawesi (18.37 %).
Educational level correlates highly with welfare. In 1999, 87 percent of the poor had primary school education or lower. The Net Enrolment Ratios (NER) of several provinces are still below 60 per cent including Central Sulawesi, Gorontalo, South Sulawesi and South-East Sulawesi (see figures below). Participation in the 9 year basic education programme is relatively low compared to the average. The highest level of participation is found in North Sulawesi (93.9%) where it averages 96.1% for the 7-12 year age group (elementary school). Bad rates of school drop-out are seen in children between 7 and 15, reaching as high as 12.7% (highest in Gorontalo) while the national figure is only 2.8%.
References:
JICA, “Poverty Profile Executive Summary Republic of Indonesia”, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, February 2001
UNDP, “Indonesia Progress Report on the Millenium Development Goals”, online: http://www.undp.or.id/pubs/imdg2004/ , 2005
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