Ruslan Sangadji, Tojo Una-Una – Members of the isolated Tau Taa tribe, in Tojo Una-Una regency in Central Sulawesi, say discrimination and apathy has left their children scrawling their lessons in the dirt.
The tribe, known locally as To Wana, dwells in a number of villages called lipu, such as Lengkasa, Vatutana, Partambung, Mpoa, Tikore, Umeviawu and Ratovali.
According to the 2006 data, To Wana tribespeople number 1,500. They live in remote areas or deep in tropical forest plains, elevated at an average of 700 meters above sea level.
The government has blamed remoteness for not building schools in their villages, and the nearest school in Bulang Jaya, a transmigration settlement unit, takes five hours to reach walking.
Families continue to enroll their children into school despite experiencing discrimination and ridicule from school authorities, tribesman Apa Wis, 32, told the The Jakarta Post, who visited the community recently.
"Teachers asked questions like 'what's the use of putting your child in school'", Apa Wis said. "They ask, "Where do you come from?", and say the school is designated only for transmigrants, and tell us we cannot study there because we are not transmigrants," he said.
Children from the tribe are also mocked by other children because they walk to school barefooted. Shoes are a luxury for the tribespeople, and not something they are used to.
"They are not used to wearing shoes because it's not their tradition," an activist at the Palu Merah Putih Foundation, Badri Djawara, who is a supporter of the To Wana tribespeople, said.
He said school authorities should have made it clear to teachers and students that children from the To Wana community were the same as other children, and should not be discriminated against. Parents are worried about the ill-treatment their children are receiving.
"We have never been worried about the arrival of outsiders from Java, Bali and Lombok, but why are we shunned by them? This is our land and we have our rights too," Apa Wis said.
Despite that, the To Wana community refuses to give in. Following a study conducted by the Palu Merah Putih Foundation on the community, they mutually decided to set up an alternative school in a village assembly hall, and called it lipu school (village school). It is run by Indo Deleng, 24, a local teacher who graduated from senior high school.
The local administration remains unsupportive, and has not provided a monthly salary for Deleng.
Members of the To Wana community eventually decided to pay Deleng's salary themselves by setting aside some of their crops to the teacher. "We're poor but we still provide part of our yields to Deleng, so our children can keep studying," Apa Wis said.
The school has since prospered in three villages – Mpoa, Lengkasa and Kablenga – and enrolled more than 100 pupils.
They study with whatever resources are available. At times, when they run out of chalk, Deleng teaches students by scrawling on the ground or using charcoal to write on used paper.
Badri said the situation needed immediate action, and called on the government to assist in providing education facilities for the To Wana tribe, including school buildings and qualified teachers.