Tourism, Culture and Society

Education in Indonesia

All Indonesian citizens are required to undertake nine years of compulsory education, six years at elementary level and three in junior high school. The educational system is divided into 2 sectors, formal and non-formal.

A formal education is then divided again into three levels, primary, secondary and tertiary education. Indonesians whom attend elementary schools are usually aged 7 to 12, elementary school is compulsory to attend. The next step after elementary would be Middle school which students aged 13 to 15 attend. Upon graduating from middle school, students are not required to further their students unless they are willing to. Therefore one can either choose to further studies or otherwise.

Those interested in furthering students have options such as or academy, polytechnic, institute and university. The higher education system develops you in either the academic aspect or professional education.

credits to Jakarta post

Education in Bali

A report dating 3 months back to 3 September revealed that 302,523 Bali residents aged 15 and over is still illiterate, as said by the provincial government spokesman, I Ketut Teneng. In addition, statistics have shown that 9 % of the people have no education, 27% have not graduated from primary school, 35% have graduated from primary school, 13% have graduated from junior high school, 12% have graduated from high school, and only 4% have completed higher education degrees. These statistics have proven that even with an education system in place, Bali still has a high percentage of people not being educated.

This is no surprise because Indonesia is one of the countries with the highest illiteracy rates in the world. A 1993 report by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said these nine countries, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and Indonesia, were home to 70 percent of the world's illiterate population and 40 percent of global school dropouts.

Because of the education for all project by (UNESCO) which aims at cutting 50 percent of the world's illiterate population by 2015, Indonesia illiteracy rate has successfully declined to less than 10 percent of its 240 million population.

Bali is also taking action to reduce its illiteracy rate. Teneng mentioned that “the provincial administration had in 2010 allocated Rp964.4 million from the regional budget to support various programs such as technical supervision of tutor training and activities to increase the quality of education for students.” Since 2008 more basic literacy classes has been implemented with a target of making 36,697 people literate by 2010 and 265,826 more gradually starting in 2011.

East Bali Poverty Project (EBPP)

Ban was the poorest village in Bali, with 99 percent of the 3,000 people being illiterate. As quoted by the Jakarta Post, “Infant mortality stood at between 30 to 50 percent of children under one year, mothers had never heard of maternal health clinics, nurses never visited, and the national census ignored the existence of these people.” That is how severe the situation is even though tourism is booming in other parts of Bali.

David Stone who started the East Bali Poverty Project (EBPP) contacted UNICEF in the late 1990s when he realized that beside the poor education system, the villagers were mostly malnutrition.

David Stone had upgraded Ban a place with the lack of education, access to health and markets and cassava diet coupled with fouled water supplies into a more educated Ban. People are now leading better lives. The first school was started in Bunga, a sub village in Ban. In the Jakarta Post article, a child named Alit was one of the first children to have benefited from the new school. He learnt how to read and write overtime and became a teacher. With formal education, the villagers are able to earn a higher income through the selling of cattles. In the past, farmers were earning around US$80 per cow but now they are able to sell it for up to 10 times more because they learnt the value of money.

A change is happening in this small village in Bali, this is a change for good. Globalization is the cause of this change. The help of different organizations like UNICEF has elevated the village from poverty and provided them with a better environment to live in.

All schools now offer karate lessons with a former Indonesian champion, Mangku Wayan Pajek. Children are also offered the opportunity to focus on the arts, with volunteers such as Israeli Esia Simantov sharing his drama and music skills fine honed at Tel Aviv University.

Some of the articles worth looking at on the education on Bali include two articles by Jakarta Post,

Bali province to have free education in 2010

Wasti Atmodjo,, Contributor,, Denpasar | Sat, 01/24/2009 3:35 PM | National http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/01/24/bali-province-have-free-education-2010.html and

12-years of school mandatory
Mon, 07/27/2009 4:24 PM | National