Rizal Harahap, Pekanbaru – A quarter of all children who finish primary school in Riau do not go on to junior high, and may fall prey to exploitation and abuse, says an official.
Riau Education Office head Irwan Effendi said Thursday this amounted to 27,000 of the 105,000 children who finished primary school in the province.
He added the high rate of dropouts was down to three factors – lack of money, parents who wanted their children to work rather than learn, and geographical conditions.
The dominant factor was the parents, Irwan said, pointing out not many parents were fully aware of the importance of education, while most were simply content if their children could read and write.
A disturbing pattern was that most of the dropouts were girls, Irwan said. "Nowadays, most people, particularly those living in rural areas, want their daughters to get married quickly," he told The Jakarta Post.
As a result, he went on, parents married off their daughters immediately after they finished primary school. This practice is hard to change because it is associated with people's mind-sets and financial difficulties, he said.
"The harsh geographical condition, particularly for those living in isolated areas, has hampered the mandatory nine-year education program," Irwan said.
He added the Riau Education Office would take steps to ensure more students went on to junior high, including by setting up a correspondence education program and exempting fees for the Package B study group.
"We'll improve education facilities, but the most important thing is to educate parents in rural areas to change their mind-set on the importance of their children's education," he said.
Rosnaniar, head of the Riau branch of the National Commission for Child Protection (KPAI), expressed concern that the high dropout rate would trigger exploitation and abuse of children.
In the past six months, she said, most of the Riau KPAI's 100 cases were of child exploitation to fulfill a family's financial needs.
"Many schoolchildren are forced by their parents to skip school so they can help out in the fields," Rosnaniar said.
"They lose their basic rights this way. Child buskers and beggars are also subject to sexual abuse and trafficking. The growing number of school dropouts could exacerbate the situation."
Rosnaniar urged all stakeholders to pay special attention to school-age children, who account for 30 percent of Riau's total population.
"They should be given room and protected from abuse, exploitation and discrimination, because at those ages, they are developing at a very fast pace physically, mentally and socially," she said.